Emilia Pérez follows a Mexican lawyer who is offered an unusual job to help a notorious cartel boss retire and transition into living as a woman.
Disregarding all of the controversy surrounding it, Emilia Pérez is a bad movie. It has evident abandonment issues and an identity crisis that persists for all 132 minutes. This is clear from the start. The film heavily utilizes narration… until it abandons that idea. The film establishes Zoe Saldaña’s Rita as the main character… until it largely disregards her for the remainder of the runtime. The film provides representation for multiple marginalized communities… but is partly innacurate, lazy and even insulting in doing so.
The performances are the highlight of Emilia Pérez. Saldaña, Karla Sofía Gascón and Selena Gomez are all good to great. Saldaña, specifically, excels in a variety of different settings. She also provides the most energy in the “musical” numbers.
This is not an effective musical. The film’s musical numbers are lazy and completely forced, often feeling jarring with how little buildup there is. This leads to an array of uninspired sequences that are completely forgettable. Creative music can oftentimes enhance a movie, but most of the musical numbers in Emilia Pérez are simply just dialogue. Maybe others found enjoyment out of them, but there’s not a single song featured here that I would ever want to listen to again.
With such a unique and complicated plot, Emilia Pérez also becomes convoluted. The flick needed to diligently navigate through all of its complexities, but instead glosses over the most interesting and important parts. Because of the constant shifting in characters, locations and time, it was difficult to completely buy into the story.
Coinciding with this is the fact that Emilia Pérez is littered with lazy editing. There are sloppily spliced scenes, and cuts that don’t flow into one another. Always jumping from idea to idea, the movie also succumbs to simply fading to black too often. As one of the five movies nominated for Best Film Editing at the 97th Academy Awards, this is unnacceptable.
The final act of Emilia Pérez manages to tie some of its loose ends together and become a slightly more entertaining experience. This is not only because of the added tension over the last 30 minutes, but also because it finally generates realistic character development. Pérez is a complicated individual, and the flick finally acknowledges this as it draws to a close.
What is the point of Emilia Pérez? I’m honestly not sure. The film attempts to redeem an inhumane and brutal character by exploring identity through gender transition. It does this alongside delving into social and political commentary all while being a “musical.” It fails in virtually every aspect by feeling inauthentic, pretentious and inconsistent. Many have been quick to throw harsh criticisms at Emilia Pérez. We don’t really even need to, however, as the film makes a mockery of itself time and time again.
Rating: 1.5 out of 5
