I have been down on Emilia Pérez for a long time. I heard a lot of negative reviews about it before seeing it, but I went into watching it with an open mind. The story of Emilia Pérez as a production is one of missed opportunities. It could have and should have been a great film. In fact, some people already consider it to be a great film. All the ingredients are there for this to be a great film. The concept is fantastic. The acting performances are good, for the most part. There is emotion, drama, and conflict in the storytelling. It has powerful thematic components about the choices we make and the consequences that come from them. Unfortunately, the script didn’t follow its own advice because they made some strange choices.

And oh, God, that music and singing are terrible. Not only that, too many people in the cast couldn’t sing and they needed to use AI to enhance some of the voices. Overall, I cannot figure out why this movie is so critically acclaimed and getting so much love this awards season. The public seems to get it, though. While Emilia Pérez is certified fresh with critics on Rotten Tomatoes with 72%, the public greatly disagrees, only giving it a paltry 17%.

All that said, what makes Emilia Pérez that much more frustrating is that it actually has a pretty good script, which is nominated for Best Adapted Screenplay. Based on the novel, Ecoute, by Boris Razon, director and screenwriter Jacques Audiard and his screenwriting collaborators Thomas Bidegain, Léa Mysius, and Nicolas Livecci wrote a well-structured screenplay that tells a compelling story.

The premise is fantastic about a Mexican cartel leader, Manitas Del Monte (Karla Sofia Gascón), who is transgender and wants to have gender-affirming surgery but wants to make sure his wife and children are cared for. He hires attorney Rita Mora Castro (Zoe Saldaña) to make the necessary arrangements. The concept leads to a first act that is compelling and dramatic. We see a person who was born as a man into a violent world and has embraced that violence and used it to build an empire. He is not transitioning to escape his responsibility, but he believes he’s becoming the person he always should have been. It’s a deep premise that allows the story to go in many different dramatic directions, and Audiard and his team did that very well.

The screenplay is written in four clear acts and has a clear Hero’s Journey.

Act 1:

Ordinary World: Rita is an underpaid and under-appreciated attorney who doesn’t believe in what she’s doing. She’s defending people she knows are guilty and sees herself as morally dubious.

Call to Adventure: This moral ambiguity catches the attention of Manitas, who proposes the her that she find his transition team and set up his fortune so that his family is taken care of, and she will be given the financial means to set herself up for the future as well.

Refusal: She has a hard time finding a doctor who is capable and willing to perform the surgery.

Meeting the Mentor isn’t as well defined. Rita has many allies but no real mentors. One could argue that Dr. Wasserman is an archetypal mentor, almost in the form of a mythical wizard, as he has the archetypal magical ability to transform Manitas into Emilia.

Crossing the First Threshold: Dr. Wasserman agrees to the surgery, and Rita gives Manitas a new life with new identification and a safe home in Switzerland for his wife, Jesse (Selena Gomez), and kids. It’s a good Crossing. Jesse goes to a new country, and Manitas changes genders. Rita goes from frumpy, put-upon failure to confident, put-together success.

Act 2A:

Tests, Allies, and Enemies: Rita, now living in London, meets Emilia, now a woman and an archetypal shapeshifter. Emilia gives Rita a new call to adventure to bring Jesse and the kids back to Mexico, but they struggle with the transition back to Mexico. Jesse calls an ex-lover to reignite their passionate affair. Emilia wants Rita to stay, but Rita wants to go back to London. They see a woman handing out fliers of her missing son. She explains the circumstances, and Emilia realizes she may be responsible for his disappearance. She wants to correct some of the terrible things that Manitas did, further showing her as that archetypal shapeshifter.

Approach: Manitss’ son sings to Emilia about how much he misses his father.

Supreme Ordeal – Emilia finds dead bodies of people her men killed.

Act 2B

Reward – Emilia decides to find others and tells Emilia to talk to men in prison to get information about where other bodies could be. They start an NGO and Emilia becomes famous and a revered figure in Mexico City. Rita hates the corrupt officials they must align ally themselves with and expresses that during the Oscar-nominated song El Mal.

The Road Back – Emilia realizes that she can’t fully enjoy her life. She’s still living a lie, just a different lie. She falls in love with Epifania (Adriana Paz), the wife of one of her victims, and realizes she can’t have her with her life the way it is. Rita also doesn’t think her life is any better. Just different problems. This is fantastic story depth. Thematically, it shows there are no fixes in life. We can’t just change who we are and think things will be better. Jesse tells Emilia she’s getting married and that she’ll take the children with her to another city, causing Emilia to lose her temper and almost blow her cover. Emilia has Gustavo attacked and sent out of town. Jesse takes the kids and leaves town as well, and Emelia vindictively freezes all of Jesse’s accounts.

Act 3:

Resurrection: Gustavo and Jesse kidnap Emilia to get Jesse’s money back, making Emilia the victim of the same violence that Manitas perpetrated on others for so long, and now it’s like Manitas is back. They send Rita three of Emilia’s fingers. Rita assembles an army to get Emilia back. But the plan goes wrong. Emilia confesses to Jesse who she really is. Jesse and Gustavo escape with Emilia in the trunk of their car, but they crash, and the car explodes, killing all three of them.

Return With the Elixir: Rita will take care of Emilia and Jesse’s kids, and Emilia’s body is paraded through Mexico City like a martyr.

This is a screenplay with stunning depth and emotion. The characters are complex and likable when they need to be. There are solid character arcs for Emilia and Rita, and the story’s structure organically creates a dramatic narrative filled with conflict. It’s not my favorite script, but I like it a lot better than I initially did after going through it and breaking it down. The fact that the screenplay was so good only makes it more frustrating that the movie was less than it should have been. If this had not been a musical and had just been a straightforward dramatic film, it might have been worthy of the accolades it’s getting.

Unfortunately, like the characters in the movie, the filmmakers made some pretty bad choices.