February 28, 2025
Juan “Manitas” Del Monte (Karla Sofia Gascon) was a notorious druglord in the ganglands of Mexico. Unknown to everyone, including his wife Jessi (Selena Gomez) and sons, he had long harbored a desire to become a woman. One day, he hired the services of a lawyer Rita Mora Castro (Zoe Saldana) to arrange for Manitas to "die," undergo gender reconstruction surgery and emerge as a woman, who called herself Emilia Perez.
This film (described as a "musical crime comedy") was mainly in the Spanish language, but it is a French production, written and directed by acclaimed French filmmaker Jacques Audiard. It had already won were the Jury Prize at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival where it premiered, and the Best Film Musical or Comedy and Best Foreign Language Film at the Golden Globe awards earlier this month. It is the entry of France at the Oscars as well.
"Emilia Perez" will be remembered for the unique joint victory as Cannes Best Actress of its four main actresses -- Gascon, Saldana, Gomez and Adriana Paz (as grieving mother Epifania). Even more remarkable is the fact that Karla Sophia Gascon is the first transgender actress to win this prize. She also makes history as the first transgender to be nominated for Best Actress at the Golden Globes, SAG, and likely, the Oscars.
Karla Sophia Gascon portrayed Emilia before and after surgery. Having undergone this transition herself in real life, her performance is likely guided by her personal experiences. Selena Gomez felt out of place as the betrayed wife Jessi, in both her young looks and uncomfortable delivery of Spanglish lines. Zoe Saldana was solid as resourceful lawyer Rita, who also sang the most critical song "El Mal" about political corruption.
While the decision of a male crime boss to transform into a trans-female philanthropist makes an interesting story, it seemed too simplistic in its portrayal of the complex process. Audiard's decision to make this story a musical was very bizarre. The breathy singing was not very good, the songs and tunes were not particularly memorable. The best song for me was the simplest --innocent "Papa" sung by Emilia's son about how she smelled like his late father. 6/10
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