Joyce Glasser reviews Emilia Pérez (October 25, 2024) Cert. 15, 132 mins. In Cinemas (on Netflix from 13 November) The French auteur Jacques Audiard’s two greatest films, The Beat that My Heart Skipped (2005) and A Prophet (2010) are both set in a criminal milieu that spawns a man’s transformation, if not his redemption. In both films music plays a subtle role. In the former, a young man following in the criminal footsteps of his father discovers his gift as a pianist. In the latter, a tense prison drama, the rousing blast of the song Mack the Knife marks a turning point in the film and in the life of a Corsican mobster’s Arab apprentice. The song, from Brecht’s The Three-Penny Opera ends with a plea for mercy for criminals as life is harsh enough. The Three Penny Opera is not an opera but a play with song. So, too is Emilia Pérez, Audiard’s masterpiece, loosely based on Boris Razon’s book Écoute. But he hasn’t forgotten The Three Penny Opera. The music: the emotive score by Clément Ducol and the ingenious lyrics by French songwriter-singer Camille are not decorative. The lyrics are so crucial that Audiard collaborated with Camille so that they advance the plot efficiently and express the characters’ emotions in ways that dialogue alone cannot. A good example is “Doctor – Lady” in which lawyer Rita Mora Castro (Zoe Saldaña), who has travelled the world in search of the right doctor for her wealthy client, finds one in Tel Aviv’s Dr Wasserman (Mark Ivanir). Despite the remuneration, the doctor is reluctant for all the right reasons. The arguments and the transaction are accomplished in this singular duet. Music is not the only reason Emilia Pérez is the most ambitious and risky film in the 72-year-old writer-director’s career. The lyrics are translated into Spanish and the entire film is shot in Spanish with Mexico, Israel, America and Switzerland contained in an enormous sound stage. The incredible cast includes four actresses who shared the Best Actress Award at the Cannes Film Festival this year: Ballet-trained American actress Zoe Saldaña (Avengers: Infinity War, Avengers: Endgame and Avatar); the Texas-born singer-actress-businesswoman Selena Gomez, as a drug lord’s beloved but deceived wife Jessi del Monte, mother to his two adored children; Mexican actress and dancer Adriana Paz as Emilia’s friend, Epifanía, and the astonishing Spanish-Mexican actress Karla Sofía Gascón as both Manitas del Monte and Emilia Pérez. They meet Audiard’s challenge in multi-dimensional roles-of-a-lifetime. When the film opens, Rita Mora Castro is a resourceful, overworked, underpaid and undervalued defence attorney in Mexico. As we learn in her opening song, she toils away 24/7 for a sleezy boss, to free scuzzballs from incarceration. Then, as if the fates are listening, she receives a late night call. Once her name is confirmed a low, gravelly voice asks her: ‘Do you want to get rich? Meet me outside by the trash bins in ten minutes.’ It’s a call that training, caution and common sense tell her to ignore, but it comes at the right time. In an angry solo that justifies her rash decision, Rita expresses her frustration that she has missed her chance for children and will never earn enough to stop propping up her boss and start her own firm. Hold that thought, as two hours from that point you will return here, after experiencing the most twisted, thrilling, suspenseful, emotional rollercoaster of a trajectory in any film this year. At the appointed hour Rita waits by the bins where she is abducted by thugs. Screams would be pointless. She finds herself seated opposite a bearded man in shadows. She recognises the voice of the caller who sounds a bit like Marlon Brando in The Godfather but with a Mexican accent. Then he introduces himself. Rita, of course, knows the name Manitas del Monte (Karla Sofía Gascón). Everyone does, but few have ever seen him. For he is one of the most notorious cartel bosses in the world, a billionaire and a most wanted murderer and drug dealer. Rita somehow retains her professional composure, and as if on autopilot, asks him the routine question, ‘How can I help you?’ Manitas del Monte’s answer is far from routine. Nothing in law school or in her prior experience has prepared Rita for this assignment, but she will be an independent operative and her fee is off the charts. When she accepts, she crosses the line but applies her work ethic and resourcefulness to the singular brief. In so doing Rita becomes an indispensable, trusted fixer for Manitas del Monte – and Emilia Pérez. To say anymore would be self-indulgent, for who wouldn’t love to point out all the emotional twists and turns, the life choices, the human foibles, the great musical numbers and the topical gender identity issues of this electrifying film. The plot sounds like a fantasy, but the film, a riveting musical melodrama, rings too true to be one. That might be because there is a kind of parallel in the life of Karla Sofía Gascón that comes through. It is perhaps for that reason the title is her character’s name, even if the story is Rita’s.
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