Review: 'Emilia Pérez' is an exuberant, heartbreaking drama about a drug lord and a lawyer going through radical changes — and singing through it all

It’s hard to say what’s most compelling about “Emilia Pérez,” the heartbreaking Mexican drama from the French director Jacques Audiard: The story that it tells, or the way that story is being told.

Audiard’s script, adapted from Boris Razon’s novel, starts with Rita Moro Castro (Zoe Saldaña), a brilliant but unappreciated attorney at a major law firm in Mexico City. She’s working on a defense argument for a client — a rich man accused of murdering his wife — that her boss (Eduardo Alfaro) will read in court. Rita laments how she puts in all the work, getting a guilty man off the hook, and never gets the credit for it.

It’s how Rita pours out her heart that’s surprising: She sings her woes, in Spanish, while the people in the city — from the food-cart cooks to street protesters — acting as her chorus. It’s maybe the least likely scenario for a musical, but it works, thanks to the powerful emotions evoked by songwriters Camille Dalmais (who goes by her first name) and Clément Ducol. 

Rita gets a mysterious phone call from an anonymous client, one offering enough money that she would never have to work for another unappreciative boss again. She’s taken, with a bag over her head, to meet this client — and learns that he’s a powerful and threatening drug lord, Manitas Del Monte.

Manitas hires Rita to fulfill his plan to disappear from the cartel life, by arranging the work necessary to let Manitas transition to a woman. Rita goes to Bangkok and Tel Aviv to research the plastic surgery options, and hires a doctor (Mark Ivanir) to perform the complex procedures. Later, Rita escorts Manitas’ wife, Jessi (Selena Gomez), and their two sons to Switzerland for their safety. Rita assures Jessi that the separation is temporary, so Jessi is shocked when the news reports that Manitas was killed in a fiery shootout.

The movie then cuts ahead four years, finding Rita living the high life in London. One night, at a dinner party, she’s engaged in conversation with a woman, Emilia Pérez — and it takes Rita a moment to realize the Emilia used to be Manitas.

Both Manitas and Emilia are played by the Spanish-born Mexican trans actress Karla Sofía Gascón, whose incredible performance gives the movie a ferocious energy. As Emilia reveals to Rita why she’s come out of hiding — she wants to bring Jessi and her sons back to Mexico, taking the role of a favorite aunt — Gascón reveals both a romantic charm and an underlying rage. (Gascón shared the best actress award at this year’s Cannes Film Festival with Saldaña, Gomez and Adriana Paz, who plays a woman who becomes Emilia’s love interest late in the film.) 

Audiard (“The Sisters Brothers,” “Rust and Bone,” “A Prophet”) creates an earthy, gritty drama that isn’t afraid to wear its bruised heart on its sleeve through its melancholic musical numbers. With a quartet of dynamic, fascinating actresses, “Emilia Pérez” is a potent, touching look at the parts of one’s self that can change and the parts that remain constant.

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‘Emilia Pérez’

★★★1/2

Opens Friday, November 1, at the Broadway Centre Cinemas (Salt Lake City). Rated R for language, some violent content and sexual material. Running time: 132 minutes; in Spanish, with subtitles.