There are two things that are undeniable about Audiard’s off-kilter musical: it is undoubtedly engaging and delivers a fascinating, novel redemption story rooted in the exploration of Trans identity. In an era of Hollywood and showbiz plagued by remakes and aboriginality, Emilia Pérez delivers an intriguing narrative. But for such a new, sensitive topic, I find that Audiard handles Emilia’s beginnings recklessly.
In the first act, Mexican cartel leader Manitas Del Monte (Karla Sofía Gascón) enlists the help of fatigued lawyer Rita (Zoe Saldaña) to help her transition from male to female and leave everything else behind. Rita succeeds; Manitas’s wife (Selena Gomez) and children are sent away to Switzerland left under the impression that Manitas has been murdered, while Manitas goes to Tel Aviv to receive her secret operation. When she awakes from her hospital bed she finally sheds the shell of Manitas and Emilia ascends to the surface. But despite this act being, perhaps, the most important piece of the puzzle, it is the most poorly done. These first thirty minutes are riddled with harmful clichés: abandoning family and previous life in order to transition, inspecting her new body with a compact, or referring to herself as “half he, half she.” For a film that is supposed to break ground the very act of Emilia’s transition feels dated and regressive. Not to mention the musical number “La Vaginoplastia,” in which recently-operated Trans patients are paraded around a hospital. Bruised and bandaged faces roll in wheelchairs belting the words “vaginoplasty” and “laryngoplasty!” The writing, blocking, and directorial choices (a singular disorienting 360 tracking shot) strip any messaging or value from transitional procedures and twist it into a circus act.
Post-transition, however, the viewer witnesses a full transformation, not just of Emilia’s physicality but of her heart. Emilia, alongside Rita, establishes “La Lucecita,” a non-profit that seeks to find missing victims of gang violence – the very violence Emilia (or more-so Manitas) once wrought. Emilia also brings her ex-wife and children back to Mexico and reunites the family once more, although they are still under the impression that Manitas is dead and Emilia is simply a cousin of his. Emilia’s journey – her complex relationship with her ex-wife, her undying friendship with Rita, her suffocating guilt and yet her newfound joy – is beautiful.
So, while Emilia Pérez may not be fully deserving of the Oscar for Best Picture, Karla Sofía Gascón delivers a brave, gut-wrenching performance that may very much cement her place as the first Transgender actress to receive the award for Best Actress.