Movie Review: A musical, pulpy crime thriller, ‘Emilia Pérez’ swings for the fences

There is so much going on in “Emilia Pérez,” the audacious musical/melodrama/crime-thriller from filmmaker Jacques Audiard, it’s impossible not to appreciate the sheer ambition of it all.

There is obvious craft and moments of true transcendence, beauty and horror. Set around Mexico City, this is a movie about family, about ambition, about the possibility of change, cartels, human disappearances, gender-affirmation, money and corruption.

Sometimes the characters break into fantastical musical numbers: Some are filled with rage, others with joy and hope. Other times the songs come out in barely a whisper. And yet even with all that life and color and passion on screen, there’s a distinct rift between all those big emotions that the characters are cycling through and what the audience is feeling, which is practically nothing. It’s almost as if “Emilia Pérez” forgot to invite us along for the ride.

And it is quite a ride: One day a cartel boss named Manitas ( Karla Sofía Gascón ) has a smart, but undervalued lawyer Rita Mora Castro ( Zoe Saldaña ) kidnapped. Manitas wants gender confirmation surgery, and for Rita to handle the logistics: Hiring the discreet surgeon, faking Manitas' death and transporting the wife, Jessi ( Selena Gomez ) and two kids to their new home in Switzerland. In return, Rita will get rich. Somehow, this is only the first act.

Four years later, Rita's gotten a glow up. Gone are her bush eyebrows and frumpy suit, replaced with the kind of grooming only money and genetics like Saldaña’s can produce. And she’s leading a cosmopolitan life in London, something that we get to see all too briefly, when she meets another woman who’s gone through a major transformation, Emilia Pérez (Gascón).

Audiard plays briefly with the idea that Rita assumes Emilia is there to kill her, to rid the world of any remaining evidence of those who know what happened. In actuality, she just misses her kids and wants them back in Mexico to live with her. It’s up to Rita to get them to move once more, in with Emilia, posing as an aunt they’ve never met before if you’re wondering where all those “Mrs. Doubtfire” comparisons come into play. ( The bloody “Sicario” stuff is yet to come).

Saldaña lends a captivating fierceness to Rita, despite being a terribly underwritten character. It’s strange to spend so much time with someone and feel entirely detached from who they are and what they want. She just follows others around, a receptacle for everyone else’s decisions with little arc or agency of her own.

Early on in the film Rita debates (in song) with a plastic surgeon in Hong Kong about whether or not changing the body has any effect on the soul. He doesn’t think so. She does, and even goes a step further, singing “changing the soul changes society, changing society changes everything.” It’s a lovely idea that the film handles clumsily in its maximalist, go-for-broke way that values massive set-pieces and high drama over authentic emotion.

At first Emilia seems entirely changed, no longer the vindictive, jealous, violent cartel leader she once was. She is soft spoken, empathetic and happy. She starts a foundation to find all the disappeared people and give their families the chance of a proper burial and farewell. She even finds love. And yet she can’t handle watching Jessi move on. It's the stuff of soap operas — and not necessarily the fun ones. Here, it could even read as dangerously reductive.

Jessi sometimes feels like she’s part of an entirely different film, or rather a music video that seems to be paying homage somehow to Pedro Almodóvar, David Lynch and Robert Rodriguez. It is fun and wild at times, and Gomez fully commits to the bit of this woman who is being gaslit into insanity. But she and the film crescendo into absurdity, with little in the way of relief or catharsis. After all those big ideas, all those grand themes and genre-subverting gestures, we’re left with shockingly little to hold on to.

“Emilia Pérez,” a Netflix release in theaters Friday and streaming on Nov. 13, is rated R by the Motion Picture Association for “some violent content, sexual material, language.” Running time: 132 minutes. Two and a half stars out of four.

This image released by Netflix shows Selena Gomez in a scene from "Emilia Pérez." (Shanna Besson/Netflix via AP)

This image released by Netflix shows Karla Sofía Gascón in a scene from "Emilia Pérez." (Shanna Besson/Netflix via AP)

This image released by Netflix shows Karla Sofía Gascón, left, and Adriana Paz in a scene from "Emilia Pérez." (Shanna Besson/Netflix via AP)

This image released by Netflix shows Selena Gomez in a scene from "Emilia Pérez." (Shanna Besson/Netflix via AP)

This image released by Netflix shows Karla Sofía Gascón, right, and Zoe Saldaña in a scene from "Emilia Pérez." (Shanna Besson/Netflix via AP)

This image released by Netflix shows Zoe Saldaña in a scene from "Emilia Pérez." (Shanna Besson/Netflix via AP)

This image released by Netflix shows Karla Sofía Gascón, left, and and Adriana Paz in a scene from "Emilia Pérez." (Shanna Besson/Netflix via AP)

This image released by Netflix shows Zoe Saldaña in a scene from "Emilia Pérez." (Shanna Besson/Netflix via AP)

This image released by Netflix shows Karla Sofía Gascón as Emilia Pérez in a scene from "Emilia Pérez." (Shanna Besson/Netflix via AP)

LONDON (AP) — British Prime Minister Keir Starmer pledged to revive his struggling government but faced growing calls to resign after a disastrous set of local and regional elections for his Labour Party.

As the final results came in Saturday, Labour suffered a net loss of more than 1,100 local council seats across England, lost control of several local authorities it had held for decades and was booted from power in Wales after 27 years. Anti-immigration party Reform UK gained over 1,300 seats across England and made significant gains in legislative elections in Wales and Scotland.

It was a blunt verdict from voters in elections widely seen as an unofficial referendum on Starmer, whose popularity has plummeted since he led the center-left party to power less than two years ago.

Here are five things we’ve learned from the elections.

Starmer insisted he would not walk away and "plunge the country into chaos,” and the dire election results did not produce an immediate challenge to his leadership.

"The right thing to do is rebuild and show the path forward,” Starmer said Saturday. “That’s what I’m going to do in the coming days.”

Starmer’s Cabinet colleagues expressed support, and none of the high-profile Labour politicians considered potential challengers has made a move. Health Secretary Wes Streeting, former Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner and Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham are keeping quiet for now.

But a growing number of Labour lawmakers urged the prime minister to set a timetable for his departure this year. British politics allows parties to change leader midterm without the need for a new election.

“There has to be a timetable,” legislator Clive Betts told the BBC. Another lawmaker, Tony Vaughan, said there should be an “orderly transition of leadership.”

Starmer tried to demonstrate change on Saturday by bringing back two figures from past Labour governments. He made former Prime Minister Gordon Brown a special envoy on global finance, and appointed the party's ex-deputy leader Harriet Harman an adviser on women and girls.

Starmer is due to make a speech on Monday in an attempt to regain momentum, before the government sets out its legislative plans on Wednesday in a speech delivered by King Charles III at the State Opening of Parliament.

The elections were a breakthrough for Reform UK, the latest hard-right party led by the veteran nationalist politician Nigel Farage.

Running on an anti-establishment and anti-immigration message, the party won hundreds of local council seats in working-class areas in England’s north, such as Sunderland, that were solid Labour turf for decades. It also made gains from the Conservatives in areas like the county of Essex, east of London, and increased its vote share in Wales and Scotland, new terrain for the party.

Farage said the results marked a “historic change in British politics.” He said he's confident that “voters who have come to us are not doing it as a short-term protest.”

Reform UK currently holds just eight of the 650 seats in the House of Commons and it’s unclear whether it could repeat its success in a national election.

The elections produced semiautonomous administrations in Scotland and Wales led by parties devoted to independence and the breakup of the United Kingdom — though neither has that policy on the front burner.

The Scottish National Party, which has governed in Edinburgh since 2007, won another term but fell short of a majority, meaning an independence referendum is unlikely. Labour and Reform tied in a distant second place.

Plaid Cymru (The Party of Wales) won the most seats in the Cardiff-based legislature, the Senedd. The party, which has an ambition for Wales to leave the U.K. but no plan to do so anytime soon, fell short of a majority but will likely form the new government. Reform came second and Labour a distant third in one of its most historic heartlands, with outgoing First Minister Eluned Morgan losing her seat.

The economy lies at the heart of Labour’s troubles, as it does for many incumbent governments.

Since ending 14 years of Conservative rule roiled by austerity and the COVID-19 pandemic, Labour has struggled to ease the cost of living and jump-start a sluggish economy against the tough economic backdrop of war in Ukraine and, more recently, Iran. Starmer also has angered supporters with attempts to cut welfare spending, some of which were reversed after Labour revolts.

Some in Labour say the government's achievements, including protections for renters and a higher minimum wage, are going unnoticed. Many blame Starmer, an uninspiring leader distracted by scandals including his disastrous decision to appoint Peter Mandelson, a scandal-tarnished friend of Jeffrey Epstein, as Britain’s ambassador to Washington.

But Stephen Houghton, the outgoing leader of Barnsley council in northern England, where Labour lost to Reform, said the problem “goes deeper than the prime minister.”

“This has been coming for 30 years around the country, in post-industrial communities, coastal communities, that have been left behind,” he said. “You can change prime ministers all day long. If you don’t change policy, it’s not going to change.”

The results reflect a fragmentation of U.K. politics after decades of domination by Labour and the Conservative Party, which also suffered major losses on Thursday.

The elections offered voters a rainbow of choices, including the centrist Liberal Democrats and the nationalist parties in Scotland and Wales.

But the big winners were populist insurgents, Reform UK and the Green Party, whose focus has expanded from the environment to social justice and the Palestinian cause under self-described “eco populist” leader Zack Polanski. The Greens won hundreds of council seats from Labour in urban centers and university towns and took control of several local authorities.

Tony Travers, professor of government at the London School of Economics, said the results suggest the next national election, due by 2029, won’t produce a majority for any party.

“So then you’re in the world of, after the election, two or three big minority parties trying to work out how they would govern,” he said — something traditionally considered “very un-British.”

British Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer speaking to the media after meeting Labour Party members during a visit to AFC Wimbledon in south London, Saturday May 9, 2026. (Maja Smiejkowska/PA via AP)

First Minister and SNP leader John Swinney with some of the newly elected SNP MSPs in Edinburgh, Saturday May 9, 2026, following the 2026 Holyrood elections. (Jane Barlow/PA via AP)

British Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer and Foreign Secretary David Lammy meeting Labour Party members during a visit to AFC Wimbledon in south London, Saturday May 9, 2026. (Maja Smiejkowska/PA via AP)

British Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer speaking to the media after meeting Labour Party members during a visit to AFC Wimbledon in south London, Saturday May 9, 2026. (Maja Smiejkowska/PA via AP)

Observers from the Scottish National Party (SNP) watch as votes are counted for the 2026 Holyrood elections, at Dewars Centre in Perth, Scotland, Friday May 8, 2026. (Jane Barlow/PA via AP)

Reform UK leader Nigel Farage speaks to supporters at Chelmsford City Racecourse, Friday May 8, 2026, in Essex, England, following the 2026 local election results. (Jordan Pettitt/PA via AP)

Britain's Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer speaks to Labour Party members at Kingsdown Methodist Church Hall, in Ealing, west London, Friday May 8, 2026, a day after the local elections. (Stefan Rousseau/PA via AP)