TIFF 2024: Emilia Pérez Review

This will be one of many reviews during this year’s Toronto International Film Festival, to keep up with our latest coverage, click here.

The following is a review from the 77th Cannes Film Festival.

Palme d’Or winner, Jacques Audiard, made a splashy return to Cannes with an endearing, genre-bending film in Emilia Pérez, honored through Audiard’s deserving Jury Prize and the rare privilege of a shared Best Actress award win among his ensemble of masterful female performances, depicting a wonderfully complex musical. The story sees defense attorney Rita (Saldaña) help a drug kingpin (Gascón) as he seeks to secretly transition into a woman. In the process, Rita helps him fake his death and plan a safe life for his wife, Jessi (Gomez), and kids, leading to a new life as Emilia Pérez. From there, Emilia must find a new balance as she deals with her unsuspecting family, managing a nonprofit organization, and trying to hide from her shady past.

Audiard delivers a vibrant and audacious experience that breathes new life into the musical medium through a successful juggle of thought-provoking ideas and techniques. The driving force for his story relies on a mindful balance of Rita’s deliberately conflicting motivations, Jessi’s inner turmoil about honoring her husband, and Emilia’s gender affirmation in a crime thriller setting. Audiard handles all of these nuanced and tender moments through great coordination in a brilliant pattern of pop opera that adjusts to each of the varying tones throughout an intended spiraling story, implemented through meticulous dance choreography, distinct music choices, and intimate cinematography that gives a thoughtful scope of the emotions in each moment.

The ensemble of Emilia Pérez is its beating heart as each actress translates their respective character arcs onto the screen with such passion and grace. Gascón excels in the difficult task of tackling a role that resonates closely to her life experiences while still tailoring each aspect of Emilia’s personality to bond with each of her screen partners in a fluid manner to deliver a consistent energetic charisma. Saldaña sets the tone for the film as she quickly embraces the operatic nature of the film while also portraying a powerful woman that challenges the motivations of each character with a certain drive that each of these women share which is making better lives for themselves. Gomez, as well, evokes sympathy from the audience as she depicts this struggle with how to grieve for her husband while caring for their kids. Saldaña and Gomez deliver career-best performances in strikingly unexpected ways as they each receive the opportunity to stretch their Spanish acting abilities in such an elegant manner as if they have been doing it all their lives.

In the end, Emilia Pérez is an incredibly vibrant experience that breaks expectations of what a musical can be and uses this medium to tell a deeply thought-provoking story through its subject matter. The film’s ensemble, delivering career-best performances, bring such passion and grace to their emotionally layered characters as they embrace Audiard’s energetic and operatic vision.

still courtesy of Netflix

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Costa Christoulas

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