By Steve Crum

Originality is Emilia Pérez. Just sum up this mind boggling Jacques Audiard masterpiece. Audiard produced, directed and wrote both the screenplay and the opera libretto it is based upon. (It is also adapted from Boris Razon’s novel, Écoute.)

Describing EP as a musical crime comedy might sound odd, but so be it. Its 132-minutes weave from gangster drama and violence to love story to song and dance sequences. The blend may be jaw dropping, but it all seems right.  

Vaguely reminiscent of 1992’s The Crying Game, written and directed by Neil Jordan, EP follows a unique plot line that is much more complex. Realize too that the lead character in Emilia is a transgender cartel boss…played by the transgender actress Karla Sofia Gascón! Score another uniqueness point for originality. 

Factor in that before he has “gender affirming surgery,” Emilia is known as Juan “Manitas” Del Monte, married to Jessi (well played by Selena Gomez) and father of their two children. In hoodlum parlance, Jessi is on the lamb from enemies. He wishes to appear killed—by going into hiding and undergoing a body and identify makeover— to protect his family. Even his wife is unaware, and mourns his “death.”

At the outset of the plan, (then) Juan persuades a so-so but talented Mexican attorney to handle his affairs during the upcoming transition—that is filled with complications. Zoe Saldaña plays Rita Mora Castro, who does terrific work from dramatics to singing and dancing when the story segues into near opera. Equally stunning is the music composed by Clément Ducal (score) and Camille (songs). 

That Emilia not only misses her wife and kids, but decides to push her charade to actually move in with them disguised as Juan’s sister…is enough of too much reveal. 

Here is an amazing motion picture, truly original. 

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GRADE on an A-F Scale: A