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London Film Festival 2024 – Emilia Perez ★★★★

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Released: 25 October 2024

Director: Jacques Audiard

Starring: Zoe Saldaña, Karla Sofíá Gascón, Selena Gomez, Adriana Paz, Mark Ivanir, Édgar Ramirez

After its world premiere at Cannes Film Festival back in May, Emilia Pérez easily became one of the most divisive films of the festival, if not the entire year. With a generally mixed reception and two wins in the Jury Prize and Best Actress Category at one of the most prestigious film festivals in the world, the film was bound to grab my attention from the very first moment I heard about it. Once I was finally able to watch it at London Film Festival, I couldn’t help but wonder: would it live up to the hype? Where would I stand on a film that seemed to leave most of its viewers either loving it or hating it with no in between?

Loosely adapted from the 2018 novel Ecoute by Boris Razon, Emilia Pérez begins in Mexico where a cartel boss, Manitas Del Monte, hires Rita (Zoe Saldaña), a smart but undervalued lawyer for a shady firm, to pursue gender affirming surgery that will allow her to live as her true self: the titular Emilia Pérez (Karla Sofia Gascón). Four years later, Rita is now in London where she reunites with Emilia. The latter is desperate to see her children again and asks Rita to help her be reunited with her family, including her two kids and her wife Jessi Del Monte (Selena Gomez) who all believe Manitas to be dead. Once the characters all return to Mexico, Rita and Emilia become the face of a movement to find the bodies, bringing justice to all the people who disappeared without a trace. This soon leads them to meet many women whose family members were killed, including Epifanía (Adriana Paz).

Part musical, part comedy, part crime film, and part everything else that can sit in between these genres, Emilia Pérez is everything its audience wants it to be. In many ways, it is an opera, as the main actress described it in an interview, but it is one in cinematic form. It has the tragic quality of an opera with a dramatic sense of justice our protagonist can’t escape. Despite her best efforts at redeeming herself from her past, there is a sense that Emilia – and the audience with her – always knew how all of this was going to end for her, no matter how much we may wish for a happy ending.

An honourable mention has to go to the acting, which is one of the stand-out elements of the film. Karla Sofia Gascón is absolutely brilliant in a complex and multi-layered role that allows her to be at her most vulnerable as the film goes on. Her stellar performance is supported by equally amazing acting from the rest of the film’s female protagonists.  Zoe Saldaña, Selena Gomez, and Adriana Paz are all giving some of the best performances of their career, as they portray different ways in which the women are rebelling to the system and status quo they may feel trapped in..

The musical elements are also very well integrated into the story. Not only they are included within the narrative of Emilia Pérez but the transitions in and out of each number are also both smooth and very distinctive. Moreover, each song adds an emotional layer to the character who is singing it, serving the purpose of the songs in classical musicals of allowing the characters to express their inner thoughts and feelings they could not otherwise share with words.

At the same time, this is not theatre: in fact, it is an extraordinary piece of cinema. As Emilia Pérez goes on, it becomes increasingly clear how the movie plays with its formal and technical qualities to truly create a spectacle for its audience. This is particularly true of the lighting and blocking in the musical numbers which have a specific theatrical quality, one that only adds to the overall context of a film as it constantly blurs the line between what is authentic and what is a lie.

The cinematography also especially stands out with camerawork that showcases its setting in both its beauty and its horrors. This is mirrored narratively as Emilia Pérez presents its audience, and at the same time its characters, with a dream-like scenario where the major issues of Mexican politics and history can be addressed and solved by the bold women that take control of the situation. But, in the end, the film heartbreakingly reveals how this is nothing but a dream as the harsh reality comes crashing down in the film’s tense and well-paced final act. Overall, Emilia Peréz is not afraid to take risks and never plays it safe, making for a truly remarkable watch that will take audiences on a journey they are most likely going to remember for a very long time

In entirely the best way possible, Emilia Pérez is a everything in just one film – comedy, musical, and even action – but also nothing at all once, as undefinable as it remains in its genre and scope. While this may sound like a lot for one singular film, Audiard manages to pull it off in an incredibly impressive combination of different genres, influences, and styles that creates a unique product audiences are not likely to forget about anytime soon. Admittedly, some may not be on board with the delirious concoction that this film offers us but even then, it remains a remarkable product for what it aims to do.

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