Emilia Pérez starts in a frenzy and stays that way for two hours and twelve minutes. Within the first few minutes, we get two musical numbers led by Rita (Zoe Saldaña). She’s a lawyer who’s fed up with helping criminals go free via the crooked justice system, particularly despising the men who are contributing to the violence against women that’s running rampant throughout Mexico. After wrapping the trial, Rita is contacted by a mysterious, unknown caller and then promptly stuffed into a van with a black hood over her head.

 

She’s kidnapped and then hired for an unusual job by an unlikely client. Drug lord Manitas Del Monte (Karla Sofía Gascón) identifies as a woman and hires Rita to assist in finding a safe but discreet doctor who will perform gender-affirming surgery. After the successful operation, the former drug lord selects the name Emilia Pérez to go along with her new identity and appearance. She disappears to start a new life without her wife and children while Rita enjoys a fresh start in London. But the peace doesn’t last. Emilia reappears in Rita’s life with another request. This time to bring her children and wife back to Mexico. Things don’t go exactly as planned with her family. And there’s a side quest involving founding an organization that assists families whose loved ones have disappeared. 

 

All of this action-packed story plays out interspersed with sporadic musical numbers. The songs and melodies themselves aren’t particularly memorable. But they aren’t a total snoozefest either. There’s a scene in a hospital where Rita and a doctor happily sing about vaginoplasties as people are wheeled by in hospital gowns. Another electrifying sequence involves Rita dancing on tables at a banquet filled with crooked politicians and calling them out for their crimes. 

 

Despite leaning somewhat into a melodramatic and campy tone, director Jacques Audiard never fully commits, which makes Emilia Pérez feel a little disjointed. Especially when the story dives further into territory that it has neither the time nor inclination to fully explore. The backdrop of Mexican cartels, the frequent disappearances and bursts of violence, hints of political corruption, and the journey of someone going through gender-affirming surgery and navigating their life afterwards is a lot to pack into one movie. Sprinkle in a few musical numbers and you have a mix of competing moments on screen that make for an odd, yet at times enjoyable watch. 

 

The main reason Emilia Pérez works at all is because of the strong performances. Selena Gomez gets the least screen time of the three main characters, which is a shame because she lights up every scene she appears in. Saldaña is particularly mesmerizing, deftly performing her musical numbers and evolving beautifully from beginning to end. But the anchor of the movie is Karla Sofía Gascón, who guides us through Emilia’s internal struggles, her quest to become her true self, and past mistakes that still haunt her. Gascón has an easy chemistry with both Gomez and Saldaña that drives the movie forward and helps to heighten the stakes. Without her performance, it’s hard to imagine the movie having the same impact. 

 

Despite the messiness of competing themes and narratives and rushing through intricate and complex personal struggles, Emilia Pérez isn’t a disaster. The performances are strong, the story is interesting, and Audiard keeps you guessing as to what will happen next. It’s a bizarre ride that’s sometimes head scratching and sometimes wildly entertaining. But there’s no doubt it’s one of the year’s most interesting films.