"Well, this is unexpected," said Wendy Ide in The Observer. Veteran French director Jacques Audiard (Un prophète) takes "arguably the biggest gamble of his career with the eccentric, genre-bending, Spanish-language musical Emilia Pérez".
Set in Mexico, it touches on such weighty themes as cartel violence and "the epidemic levels of disappearances in the country, as well as gender reassignment surgery and transitioning" – via the medium of "endearingly shoddy song and dance numbers". Zoe Saldaña stars as Rita, a brilliant lawyer who is offered $2 million by notorious cartel boss "Manitas" Del Monte (Karla Sofía Gascón) to help him transition. He has realised that "not only was he born into the wrong body, but also the wrong life", and he believes that as a woman named Emilia Pérez, he will be able to leave "cartel culture" behind for ever.
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