Susan Granger’s review of “Emilia Perez” (Netflix)
If you’re looking for something truly different, watch French filmmaker Jacques Audiard’s daring operatic drama “Emilia Perez.”
Set against the brutality of Mexico City’s drug cartels, it’s the story of Juan ‘Manitas’ Del Monte, a swarthy, cigar-smoking, middle-aged kingpin – married with two young children – who yearns to be a woman.
To achieve that end, he hires Rita Moro Castro (Zoe Saldana), an overworked, overlooked criminal defense attorney, to discreetly arrange his highly risky gender reassignment surgery in Switzerland, eventually emerging as the titular Emilia Perez (Karla Sofia Gascon), leaving his angry yet adoring wife Jessi (Selena Gomez) to believe he’s dead.
Together, Emilia and Rita form a nonprofit charity with the goal of improving the lives of Latin American women whose worlds have been destroyed by narco violence. Among them is Epifania (Adriana Paz), who becomes Emilia’s paramour.
Complications arise when benevolent Emilia – now a justice-seeking philanthropist – demands that Rita arrange a reunion with Jessi and their children. Claiming to be the Del Monte children’s rich ‘auntie,’ doting Emilia tries to intimidate petulant Jessi, who has since reunited with her longtime lover, Gustavo Brun (Edgar Ramiriz).
Hefty, transgender Spanish actress Karla Sofia Gascon brings a sincere, melodramatic flair to a complex dual performance – involving transition, transformation and rebirth – while Zoe Saldana (“Avatar,” “Guardians of the Galaxy,” “Lioness”) once again demonstrates her versatility.
Working with cinematographer Paul Guilhaume, writer/director Jacques Audiard notes that his libretto was inspired by a character in a chapter in Boris Razon’s 2018 novel “Ecoute” (“Listen”) about a ruthless, hyper-macho drug trafficker who asks a lawyer for logistical help to transition into a woman.
Composed by Clement Ducol and Camille Dalmais, the musical numbers are brief and bizarre, beginning with “El Alegato” (“The Plea”) to chanting surgery-based lyrics in a Bangkok clinic – referring to “mammaplasty,” “vaginoplasty” and “laryngoplasty”- and proceeding onto Selena Gomez’s pop ballad “Mi Camino” (“My Path”), while Zoe Saldana wraps up with “El Mal” (“The Evil”).
In Spanish with English subtitles, “Emilia Perez” is a unique, provocative, compassionate 8, streaming on Netflix.
