Emilia Pérez: A Flawed Oscar Contender with More Misses Than Hits
Emilia Pérez, which leads this year’s Oscar contenders with 13 nominations, is as bad as people say it is. Sure, there are some good things about the film that elevate it above being just a bad movie. Unfortunately, these just aren’t enough to save the film.
The musical is about a Mexican lawyer, Rita, played by Zoe Saldaña, who is offered an unusual job to help a notorious cartel boss retire and transition from a man to a woman. Rita would help the kingpin, Juan "Manitas" Del Monte, fake his death to fulfill a long-held desire to live as her true self, Emilia, played by Karla Sofía Gascón.
The story sounds intriguing, but the plot often makes little sense. Manitas does not tell his wife, played by Selena Gomez, that he is undergoing gender affirmation surgery. He keeps her in the dark the entire time, even pretending to be a cousin after transitioning. An hour and a half into the film, Emilia gets upset at Gomez’s character for getting remarried and wanting to take the kids away. This is where the plot gets nonsensical. If you pretend to die and do not tell the mother of your children, and then when she wants to get remarried and take the kids away, you get mad at her?
The screenwriting is also poorly executed. Sure, there were a couple of moments and a couple lines of dialogue where the film had me laughing out loud. But generally, the writing was just bad as it made the characters act in ways humans do not. An example of this is when Emilia decides to start a relationship with someone who came to her non-profit because her organization identified the woman’s dead husband. A regular person does not behave like that, and if they did, it wouldn’t be immediately after the woman left their office.
I was asking a lot of questions throughout this film. For example. why did you get this surgery and not tell your wife? The film never explained it.
For a musical, the music is also a low point in the film. There are a couple of good songs: Lady, Papa, Para, and Mi Camino, respectively. Mi Camino is one of two songs nominated for an Oscar. There are maybe four songs that feel and sound like they belong in a musical. The rest of the songs do not even sound like music written by musicians, but by AI. Even the second song in the film that was nominated for an Oscar, El Mal, is not good. The song is described as a rap-rock song. The issue with this song is that it doesn’t blend the two genres well, so it sounds like two different songs.
Despite the many flaws, the actors are quite good, except Saldaña. Perhaps it is because the film is in Spanish, which she doesn’t speak. The singing from most of the cast is quite good as well. But the lead actress, Gascón, can’t sing. Every song she sings is out of tune and flat. Her acting is great, but that is only half of the musical. The other half is singing, and a lead in a musical must be able to act and sing.
This film is getting a lot of praise, mainly because Gascón is the first openly trans actor to get nominated for any awards, especially an Oscar. There is, however, also controversy surrounding the film, especially from the trans and Mexican communities. The film takes place entirely in Mexico, yet none of the main cast is Mexican. Saldaña and Gomez are from America, and Gascón is from Spain. The Mexican community was upset because the film is based on a real person and takes place in Mexico, yet it did not include a single Mexican actor in the main cast. It does not help that the director of the film is French. The trans community feels the film gives a poor representation of trans people and I am inclined to agree. The film makes it seem like the main character claims to be trans and switches genders to get away from her criminal past, which can cast a bad light on the trans community.
Emilia Pérez is a film with a couple of funny moment, a couple of good songs, and some great acting. But with a bad story, bad writing, and a lead actress who can’t sing well enough to carry a musical, the bad ultimately outweighs the good. I give this film a 3 out of 10.