Film Review: Emilia Pérez
by Marinell Haegelin

Jacques Audiard, France, Belgium, Mexico 2024

Visually electric, musically vibrant and thematically rich, EMILIA PÉREZ is a suspenseful thriller and intriguing, droll drama with variable types of love and pathos. French screenwriter-director-producer Jacques Audiard’s award-winning film’s based on his operetta libretto that’s loosely adapted from Boris Razon’s 2018 novel, Écoute. Camille’s original songs with Clément Ducol’s score soars, climaxing when EMILIA PÉREZ won the Palme d’Or, the Jury Prize, and its leading female cast en bloc the Best Actress award at France’s 77th Cannes Film Festival 2024. Clément Ducol and Camille won the Cannes 2024 Sound Award.

The musical sequence preamble acquaints audiences with Rita (Zoe Saldaña), a brilliant, young, hardworking attorney in Mexico City whose boss (Edgar Ramírez), time and again, steals her credit. After winning one high-profile case, she receives an enigmatically cryptic message offering advantages, including financial reward. Fed-up, curious, she agrees to a meeting. The notorious, ruthless cartel warlord (Karla Sofía Gascón) is not who, or what she expected; Juan “Manitas” Del Monte is driven and has eyes everywhere. Manitas’s offer, alarming yet enticing, confirms it’s an all-or-nothing decision. To pull off the demanding timeline for this multi-tiered job she’ll need quick wits and finesse, particularly the part involving his family. Still, the reward is worth the risk and challenge. Finding a doctor is demanding; only when the deed is done and Manitas’s family attended to does Rita move into her new future. Fast-forward four years to an upscale London restaurant. Rita’s introduced to a colleague’s client, Emilia Pérez (Karla Sofía Gascón), and as realization dawns, she fights to maintain control. Returning to Mexico City, subsequently a new, surprising course opens for both women, prompting one to marvel, “For the first time, I liked myself.”

EMILIA PÉREZ is special. The lead characters are likable, even the warlord; the make-up department’s artistry on Del Monte deserves kudos. Belgo-French choreographer Damien Jalet’s dance numbers are capricious, captivating—dancers freeze on a note—and faultlessly interwoven. Importantly, Camille’s songs’ lyrics contain context into situations and/or characters. Audiard’s bold film’s dauntless originality and provocative social themes, e.g., Mexico’s violent drug cartels, offers audiences a compellingly visceral musical journey worth experiencing.