Trans Movie: Emilia Perez
Saw the movie, Emilia Perez. Spoilers.
This is the story of a terrible violent Mexican cartel boss, with a wife and kids, who strongly desires to abandon his life and become a woman, using the unlimited fortune they have built. To that end, he enlists a struggling attorney to make arrangements in the background.
Bottom line up front: this is a fantastic movie. It might not be for everybody. It grabbed my heart.
There are criticisms from the trans/ LGBTQ community. The narco boss is a terrible person who goes trans. It's not a positive role model. This is not too different from Silence of the Lambs having a purported trans character: sure, there may be a trans character, but they're a serial murderer.
The scenes of the narco becoming a woman, and the results of four years of transition and surgery and a fortune spent, were compelling to me. Karla Sofia Gascon is the first movie actress I've just stared at and thought, Whoa, in a very long time. (Previous: Jennifer Tilly in Bound )
To me, the movie's core was a tour-de-force of what a trans woman, and the transition, might be. From the lawyer and the narco reuniting at a London club (00:40) until the point at which the wife/widow started dating (1:10), the introduction of this new character and her development into a beautiful, empathetic activist seized me. This is fiction, of course; it's based on limitless resources, and it may be too good to be true.
In the end, the trans character wants it all; she wants to reunite with her children and spouse, presenting as a cousin of their deceased man. The apparent widow choses to marry and that is too much for the trans woman, who reverts to her original wolfish traits.
The trans character is not a person who denies their appetite; they want to be a woman, they want to start anew, they want to get back with the kids through misrepresentation and disguide; they want to control the wife/widow.
And that's all I can say about the plot. Minor whines: I don't get the casting of Selena Gomez as the wife/widow; I perceive her more as a baby-child than a woman-mother, and perhaps that's my own fault.
Caveats:
- This is a musical that began as a comedy. I do not like musicals.
- This delves in a bit of the magical realism we expect in South American fiction.
- this is not a traditional American movie; the presentation reminds me of Pulp Fiction in a What's Going on Here? sort of way.
Nevertheless, this is a 5-Star movie for me, a trans femme 3 years into HRT.