A Woman Needs a New Life in "Emilia Pérez"

Emilia Pérez isn’t great cinema. It’s not a good story. It is a product that wants to pretend that it is bold and revolutionary, and the studio behind it (Netflix) is acting like this is one of the most important movies of all time and will be studied in film classes along with other taboo-breaking films like Philadelphia and Brokeback Mountain. The fact that it is easy to click a button and just watch it without a real barrier to entry cost is also being treated as a gift to viewers (rather than the flawed business model it really is). Don’t believe the lies and don’t fall for the trap. Emilia Pérez isn’t a great work of art: it’s simply stupid.

The story (and please forgive me if pronoun usage is all over the place, because even Netflix has been having a hard time with it in their promotional material) revolves around Rita Castro (Zoe Saldaña in an electrifying performance that is totally wasted here), a mixed-race lawyer working dead-end cases in Mexico. Her plans for opening her own law firm have long been dashed, and she feels that she will die unimportant and unfulfilled in the race we all must face called life. She receives a call from a notorious drug lord, though, who promises her more money than she has ever received if she can do one thing for him: make him a woman.

Yes, this ruthless drug lord who has grills in his teeth and biceps that would give Dwayne Johnson a run for his money is secretly transgender, and he needs help not only to transition into the sex he identifies with, but also to set up funds so his wife and kids can live comfortably (a fake death is involved in this plan). Now, lest you all misunderstand me, the story concept is NOT where I have an issue! On the contrary: this is a unique story with a conflict that is quite workable for a movie. The issue is that the execution is so bad that the only thing this film has going for it is Saldaña’s performance and the premise itself.

Otherwise, every baffling decision that could be made was. For starters, despite the fact that this is a mostly Spanish-speaking film that primarily revolves around Mexican culture, the filmmakers and production companies behind the affair are all French. I love the French. Their bread… FABULOUS! But these were not the filmmakers to trust with a movie that had Mexican culture baked into the core of the characters, community, and social commentary. In many ways, the portrayal of Mexico is not only inauthentic; in some cases, it comes off as quite racist (how many of these foreign productions focus exclusively on the negative aspects of Mexican culture?).

What’s more, the movie never embraces the supposed star of the film. When the drug lord does turn into Emilia Pérez (Karla Sofía Gascón), thus becoming her true, authentic self, the film never commits to following her or her story. She disappears from the picture until she decides she needs Rita’s help once more (she misses her kids and wants to bring them back home). The emotional journey of putting her previous life behind her and coming to terms with what she may have given up is glossed over in the most offensive way.

That’s because Emilia Pérez the movie wants to PRETEND that it is about a transgender woman, but the point of view of the story almost never leaves Rita, who looks at Emilia as someone to pity for most of the movie (at some point they do become friends, but surprise, surprise, at that point she starts to play a lesser role in the story)! As if the characters couldn't be any shallower, the film is not only uninterested in understanding the culture and people it is about, but then the movie ends up being a MUSICAL of all things! Like, sure, that’s certainly a CHOICE… but it feels more like one of those decisions someone makes when they realize what they have isn’t any good, so they’re going to do something completely unexpected to distract audiences from that fact!

I’m not even going to get into the part of the story where Emilia opens a foundation to find the very bodies she was responsible for killing. What is supposed to be a development symbolizing the character's transformation only makes the whole situation so absurd that you feel the story couldn’t get any more laughable, even if you told the filmmakers to make it so. Emilia Pérez is a parody of what filmmakers consider to be an important, groundbreaking film. It is neither of those things. Worse, as a parody, it isn’t even funny.