Ever had a movie pitch sound so absolutely unhinged you had to check if it was a prank? A Spanish-language musical about a Mexican cartel boss who fakes his death to undergo gender-affirming surgery, only to return years later as a philanthropist trying to find the bodies of his own victims. It sounds like a fever dream. Honestly, it kind of is.
But Emilia Perez is very real. It’s the latest swing from French director Jacques Audiard, a man who doesn't speak Spanish but somehow decided to film an operatic crime drama set in Mexico—mostly on soundstages in Paris.
What is Emilia Perez movie about? The core plot
At its heart, the story follows Rita (Zoe Saldaña), a high-powered but frustrated lawyer in Mexico City. She’s tired of helping "the bad guys" escape justice. One day, she gets a mysterious call and is kidnapped—not for ransom, but for a job interview.
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She meets Juan "Manitas" Del Monte (Karla Sofía Gascón), a terrifying kingpin who runs a drug empire. Manitas has a secret that would get him killed in the hyper-macho world of the cartels: he’s always known he was a woman. He offers Rita a life-changing amount of money to help him disappear, find the best gender-affirming surgeons in the world, and fake his death so he can finally live as Emilia.
The four-year jump
The movie doesn't stay in the gritty transition phase for long. It jumps four years ahead. Rita is living a luxury life in London when she runs into a sophisticated, elegant woman. It’s Emilia. But Emilia has a problem. She misses her children.
She convinces Rita to help her move her "widow," Jessi (Selena Gomez), and her kids back to Mexico to live with her. The catch? Jessi has no idea this "distant cousin" named Emilia is actually her dead husband.
Why it's a musical (and why that's controversial)
You might be wondering how a story about cartel violence and gender identity becomes a musical. Audiard originally wrote the script as an opera libretto. He’s gone on record saying that the subject matter was so "painful" and "on the nose" that making it a musical was the only way to give it a sense of "naivety" and directness.
The songs aren't your typical Broadway show tunes. They are jarring. One minute Zoe Saldaña is singing about the logistics of vaginoplasty in a doctor’s office, and the next, there’s a massive choreographed dance number about the "disappeared" in Mexico.
The cast that's winning everything
- Karla Sofía Gascón: The first openly trans actor to win Best Actress at Cannes (shared with her co-stars). She plays both the terrifying Manitas and the repentant Emilia.
- Zoe Saldaña: Most people know her from Avatar or Marvel, but here she’s doing the heavy lifting. Her performance is the anchor that keeps the movie from drifting off into pure absurdity.
- Selena Gomez: She plays Jessi, the "trophy wife" who is left in the dark. It’s a messy, bratty, and surprisingly vulnerable role for her.
Realism vs. Stylization
Is this a "true" look at Mexico? Definitely not.
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Critics have pointed out that the movie feels like an outsider's view. Because it was filmed on sets in France, the Mexico we see in Emilia Perez is a neon-lit, theatrical version of the country. This has sparked a lot of debate. Some see it as a bold artistic choice—using the "telenovela" aesthetic to tell a deeper story about identity. Others, especially Mexican critics like Rodrigo Prieto, have called it out for being inauthentic, noting basic errors like jail signs using the wrong Spanish terminology.
The redemption arc: Can a killer be a saint?
The second half of the movie deals with Emilia trying to atone for her past life. She starts a non-profit called La Lucecita to find the remains of people murdered by the cartels.
It’s a paradox. She’s using the very money she made through violence to "heal" the community. The movie asks a hard question: Is Emilia a different person than Manitas? Or is she just the same person in a different body, still trying to control everyone around her?
What happens at the end? (Spoilers)
The ending is pure tragedy. Emilia’s past eventually catches up with her, but not in the way you’d expect. It’s not the police or rival gangs that bring her down; it’s her own domestic secrets.
Jessi wants to marry a new man, Gustavo (Édgar Ramírez), and take the kids away. Emilia, still possessing that old cartel possessiveness, snaps. She uses her power to threaten them, which leads to a kidnapping, a shootout, and a car careening off a cliff.
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In the end, Emilia dies. But the community she helped doesn't know she was a drug lord. They see her as a saint. The film ends with a somber parade through the streets, celebrating a woman who was both a monster and a savior.
Understanding the layers of Emilia Perez
If you're planning to watch it, or just trying to make sense of the hype, keep these three things in mind:
- It’s a genre-bender: Don't go in expecting a standard crime thriller. It shifts from Sicario vibes to La La Land to a soap opera in the span of ten minutes.
- It’s based on a book (loosely): The character was inspired by a single chapter in the 2018 novel Écoute by Boris Razon. Audiard took that tiny seed and grew this whole operatic world from it.
- The message is messy: It’s not a simple "feel-good" transition story. It’s about the "stain" of the past and whether we can ever truly reinvent ourselves.
To get the most out of the film, watch it on the largest screen possible with a solid sound system—the music and the visuals are designed to be overwhelming. Keep an eye on the color palettes; the shift from the muted tones of Manitas's world to the vibrant, almost surreal colors of Emilia's life tells the story as much as the dialogue does.