Emilia Perez (played by Karla Sofía Gascón) is about a drug lord transitioning. After the transition Emilia then becomes an advocate for the disappeared in Mexico. Then it turns into action hostage thriller. At times it’s a musical. It’s a mess.
The actual singing and dancing seems purposefully kind of bad – even the songs sung and danced by Selena Gomez don’t look or sound good.
Zoe Saldana, plays Rita Castro, an attorney who becomes Emilia’s personal attorney. She helps Emilia transition, helps hide Emilia’s family, and then later helps Emilia run the non-profit organization to find Missing Persons. Rita might actually be the main character of the story since we spend the most time with her. Despite Saldana’s acting, Rita isn’t really a sympathetic character. All we really know about her is she works too much to get married and have a family.
Years from now this may be looked back on as a cringe-worthy and over-simplified tale of transitioning. Or maybe it will looked as a campy classic. Or maybe both?