Emilia Perez 2024
This movie got a lot of acclaim for its performances and Zoe Saladana went on to win the Best Actress Oscar. I had no idea what it was about, but I was on an 8-hour flight and it seemed like one of the better bets. Airplanes are not great places to watch movies. The screen is tiny and the sound is terrible, which in this case was even worse since it is partially a music and dance movie, and in some ways not as bad since it is almost entirely in Spanish so I had to have subtitles on anyway. It did give me a chance to put some my recent Spanish skills to the test, but I definitely needed the subtitles. I don't want to give away a lot of the movie, but the Emilia Perez character is played by a transsexual actress, meaning she looks pretty manly. There is a plot with drug lords and disappearances in Mexico and a custody battle. Zoe Saldana is the main character, a lawyer, drawn into all of this craziness by the incredible sums of money her client is willing to pay. I feel like it throws too much stuff together and fails to do any of it well. I can't really tell with singing in Spanish, but other than a couple of big numbers, some of the "singing" barely qualifies, even as rap. And the drug cartel plot has been done better elsewhere. They try to give it some positivity as Saldana's character makes money, but it is seriously dirty money. And another plot line comes in when they try to resolve some of the disappearances for the benefit of the families of the victims, but again, they are helping victims of crimes they committed, while taking a few swipes at the corrupt police for not solving the crimes. Ultimately it turns into a kind of neo-noir thing maybe. It is just too much and at the same time too little. Sometimes the characters speak in English for what seems like no reason before going back to Spanish. It is a big role for Zoe Saldana and she does well enough, but I think the size of the central role is as much why she got the Oscar as her performance. No doubt this would be a better movie if I had not watched it on a plane, but it still isn't one I would recommend.
Written: 21 May 2025