Review: Emilia Perez – A film that moves to its own beat

Musicals are nothing new to Hollywood, from Great Showman to Jokers dipping a toe, music can create a vehicle for plot and concept. Actors and singers meet on equal footing when emotion falls in time to great narratives, but sometimes, a film’s message and characters define themselves as a story’s true anchor with music being the dissolve between scenes. And definition is what Emilia Perez provides and demands.

We first meet Rita, played by Zoe Saldana, a lawyer in Mexico being used by talentless attorneys and their rich and guilty clients. Sad about her options in life, but great and what she does, she is approached by a dark figure in a terrifying way. Facing off in an unknown location, she takes his offer and proceeds to carry out a plan of change for this crime figure.

After surgery and planted news leaks, the boss is now gone, replaced by a woman that was always meant to be, newly named Emilia Perez (Karla Sofía Gascón). With money and influence she creates a new world, sans her criminal empire and unknowing family that thinks their father and husband dead. Happy, but missing the lost children, Emilia once again connects with a frightened Rita, both working to bring previous wife Jessi (Selena Gomez) and the children back into Perez’s life.

From there, life and love lines start blurring as becoming who they are and releasing how they were gets difficult and deadly.

Emilia Perez is an exciting film filled with artistic visions and honest messages. Karla Sofía Gascón delivers multiple facets throughout the film letting intentions and personalities rise and fall below the surface. When it comes to Rite, Zoe Saldana shows range as the glue and fade of the story, connecting the tissue of emotion and storyline as she favors choice or submits to control. Lastly, Director Jacques Audiard should be proud as this film defines what “Having Vision” means in many senses. The mix of music, camera work and editing all come together from the seed of an imagination that sees the full intent and story. If Broadway taking ‘Rent’ to film is one side of a coin, then Emilia Perez will surely the be the equal and opposite side.