Gender critical review, contains spoilers – Beast into princess
Plot (full spoilers): Manitas del Monto, head of a Mexican cartel, transitions to become ‘Emilia Pérez’, employing help from lawyer Rita (whose stock-in-trade is getting men off murder/domestic violence charges). Once his transition is complete, Manitas returns to reunite himself with his two sons and wife Jessi, pretending to be his own cousin. With Rita’s help, Manitas also sets up an NGO to help those families victim to his own drug cartel. Manitas begins a relationship with the widow of one of the men his cartel was responsible for murdering, meanwhile Jessi finds a new love too. When Manitas learns that Jessi intends to move away and take their children with her, he becomes angry (i.e. we see the old Manitas rear his head). Manitas (as Emilia) is kidnapped by Jessi and her lover and a ransom set. In his death throes, Manitas reveals his true identity to Jessi. Jessi forgives Manitas and realising she still loves him, spurns her lover. All three end up in a ball of flames as a result and die. The final scene is a religious one, where a statue representing a female saint/Emilia is paraded through the streets, ordinary people praising the strength of Emilia.
You can play your AGP bingo throughout with this one. For starters, Manitas tells us he knew he was trans since he was very young. Over time he had become suicidal about having to live a lie. He’s been on hormones for two years (cue suggestion ample breast development was achieved) and ready to make the switch. Etc and so on. I had expected that. And, like almost every gangster movie ever made, there is more sympathy for the violent quasi-psychopathic character than is really reasonable. I would have expected that too. Ultimately Manitas is a controlling man who won’t allow his trans widow to create a new life with a new man, taking the children with her. Again, no surprises there. And, of course, Manitas (as Emilia) is at the centre of all the women’s lives, particularly Rita’s, who exists just for him, her love unrequited, despite the barbaric violence shown towards her at their introduction, a fear which never leaves her. Again, I’ve got nothing.
There are nods to other films, notably The Skin I Live In, where Manitas wakes up disorientated, head swaddled with bandage followed surgery. His emotion ambiguous as he angles a mirror to see his neo-vag. Is he laughing? Crying? We just don’t know. Maybe he doesn’t know?
It’s also a musical by the way, and there is actually a song and dance number when Rita goes to visit a ‘gender affirmation clinic’ in Thailand on Manitas’s behalf, where they sing about the joys of vaginoplasty, among other things. Yes, really.
The first plot twist is when Manitas realises he can’t live without his children so seeks out Rita in London and tells her to move his wife and their children back to Mexico. The children love and miss their tactile loving father and, in a crucial scene, one son tells Manitas (as Emilia): ‘You smell like papa, I love it.’ Of course, Manitas is grief-stricken by all this, he daren’t reveal himself to his family (tiny violins out) because he is a wanted man and officially dead.
We also see much of Manitas’s (as Emilia) sensuous side. For example, when he makes love to his new girlfriend, his (bloody gigantic) hand softly glides over her back. The message is a forceful one – men can change. A wolf can become a kindly grandmother.
No, what is surprising is that despite all of this hackneyed AGP guff, this is still a very competent piece of art. In fact, the best I have seen so far and I’ve seen a lot. The way it is shot is absolutely stunning, the musical inserts work, great acting (even from the lump in the title role) and a plot that whizzes along. It’s going to be a big hit and I might even say deservedly. The director is very confident in portraying Emilia alternatively as heroine, caring father (and ‘mother’), loving friend and finally goddess (bleurgh), but what hits home the most is the way he tantalises us with Manitas’s dark side. There is still a demon bubbling away inside Emilia, which could rear its head any time. It’s a fairytale in a way. One where the beast turns into a princess, and throughout we are invited to wonder and fear: Is Manitas going to suddenly reappear? Is the woman in the room with him right now in peril? It’s basically a gothic romance – a pig with lipstick our new Mr Rochester.
I also attended a screen talk even with the director and two lead actors, held at the Barbican on 6 December, which you can read here.
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