REVIEW: Emilia Pérez

Sometimes the Oscar hype is wrong. This is one of those times.

Let me honest right off the bat: I’m not a big fan of musicals.

I don’t hate them. The ones I do like are the usual suspects, but most of those don’t feature song as dialogue because I like that even less. If you’re into that kind of thing, more power to ya. But, it just doesn’t work for me.

I went into writer/director Jacques Audiard’s Emilia Pérez with some trepidation because it’s a musical, but open to liking it given the critical acclaim it achieved and clips I saw at the Oscars that made it look like it broke some norms and had a unique style.

On the positive side, Emilia Pérez has a really interesting story at its heart. A Mexican drug king-pin (Karla Sofía Gascón) wants to transition to a woman and enlists a struggling attorney (Zoe Saldaña) to travel the world and spare no expense to make it happen. I’ll leave the overview at that and not spoil what transpires, but like I said, it’s a unique concept.

But, it just doesn’t work as a musical. In fact, I kept wondering throughout why it’s even a musical.

The music is pretty much across-the-board boring. There’s not a single song that has much of a hook or a hell of a lot to say. And the singing performances span the spectrum from just okay to terrible. Even Selena Gomez (who is a good singer) sounds like she’s trying to suppress her talent. I think all the mediocre singing was purposeful, meant to have everyday people breaking into song seem realistic. And yes, at times, that includes singing dialogue, but mainly insignificant dialogue which makes for terrible songs.

There are a few set pieces that are visually and musically interesting, but they’re few and far between. In fact, the last third of the movie has virtually no songs which again begs the question why is this a musical?

The performances are all fine, but nothing really to write home about. Saldaña is good but nowhere near Best Supporting Actress good, in my opinion.

Maybe it was the subject matter in these anti-trans times that boosted the film. Shinning a sympathetic light on that subject is great, but that doesn’t mean I have to love the film. And I just didn’t. I’m sure my indifference to musicals didn’t help matters, but I really don’t think that prejudiced my view. It’s just really not that good.

If you’re into musicals I’d love to hear your opinions. If you’re not, I doubt this will change your mind on them.