Carla Sofia Gascón and Zoe Saldana in a scene from ‘Emilia Perez’ | Photo Credit: Netflix

French director Jacques Audiard embarks on his latest outing, which is part telenovela, part musical, and a mix of genre-hopping somewhere between entertaining and exhausting. If a film about a ruthless Mexican drug lord becoming a flamboyant philanthropist through gender-affirmation surgery sounds odd, rest assured, Audiard’s first foray with the musical genre is unapologetically, at times, breathtaking. Yet, this constant pursuit of Showboat-y spectacle leads the story astray, entangling itself in a hazy fog of opportunity.

At the center of the film is the transformation of Manitas del Monte, a fearsome cartel boss who emerges from surgery as Emilia – a woman ready to rewrite her legacy. Carla Sofia Gascón is interesting in the role, yet her character’s journey is obscured by Audiard’s surface-level glare. While the music may lack nuance, there’s an undeniable thrill in its audacity. Emilia’s transformation is not just physical; It is a rebirth wrapped in grand gestures and blackened with layers of crime. Gascón imbues Emilia with a mournful dignity, imbuing her journey with notes of tragedy and redemption that the Cavalier script only mildly suggests. Even though Audiard’s script isn’t able to plumb Emilia’s depths, Gascón’s performance surprisingly exposes vulnerabilities amid the chaos.

Emilia finds an unexpected ally in Rita, a paralegal portrayed by the terrific Zoe Saldana. Rita suffers from frustration, both thrilled and repulsed by the money she earns from her morally corrupt work. Saldana brings a grounded intensity to Rita that provides some welcome complexity amid the drama of the story.

The film unfolds in melodramatic layers, punctuated by musical interludes that serve as high-energy, Technicolor — sometimes haunting, often absurdist. In one sequence, Rita leads a spirited group of street sweepers in a courthouse dance, and later, she shares the stage with Emilia without any inhibitions satirizing the hypocrisy of Mexico’s elite. .

They’re as gaudy as they are interesting, with these moments shot in a mix of pastel colors and bright neon by cinematographer Paul Guilhaume. But the showiness of these scenes often belies their lack of substance; Each number is a grand distraction rather than an insight into Emilia’s psychological transformation.

Zoe Saldana and Carla Sofia Gascón in a scene from ‘Emilia Perez’ | Photo Credit: Netflix

Emilia is portrayed as a person who is unstable, powerful and deeply wounded at the same time, haunted by the crimes of her past yet yearning for redemption. However, his arc of redemption is underdeveloped, painted with broad strokes and filled with clichés. The character’s metamorphosis from hardened criminal to virtuous philanthropist is expressed less through meaningful self-reflection than through his new attire and careful re-branding as a social savior. It’s a convenient redemption arc that demands very little reckoning from Emilia herself.

And herein lies the rub. Audiard’s approach to character development Emilia Perez Sometimes it seems doubtful. Rather than mining the narrative richness in the contradictions of the cartel boss’s moral awakening — or the messy, raw complexities of gender transition — the film flits from one plot point to the next, fitting the characters into a tight mold. There’s barely room for the layered subtext that might have emerged if Audiard had stuck to Emilia’s internal conflict.

There are flickers of brightness that point to the film Emilia Perez could have been done. These rare, quiet moments, where the film pauses to let Gascón and Saldana shine, offer glimpses of the potential hidden beneath the glitter.

Zoe Saldana in a scene from ‘Emilia Perez’ Photo Credit: Netflix

with Emilia PerezAudiard has created a hybrid beast of a film that feels almost experimental in its ambition. This is not a work that attempts to uncover the truth about Mexico, nor does it attempt to preach on trans identity. Rather, it is a story about change, about unexpected paths to liberation, and about humanity’s universal longing for understanding. Audiard’s conclusion, as far as possible, is that reinvention is an act of bravery – though, for Emilia, one that does not erase her past.

Emilia Perez Ultimately delivering a wild, sometimes unsettling experience – a film that wants to be all things at once: a meditation on identity, a satire of justice, surreal music, and a crime thriller. The heady mix proves too uncontrolled to fully establish even Gascón’s remarkable performance. Still, there is something strangely admirable in not being tamed.