Emilia Perez Parent Guide

A musical… a complicated musical.

Zoe Saldana stars as Rita Mora Castro, a lawyer in Mexico who is disillusioned with her job and the nature of her profession. She is contacted by Juan “Manitas” Del Monte, a drug cartel kingpin who offers to make her rich in exchange for Rita’s assistance in finding doctors who can help him achieve his lifelong wish of becoming a woman. Thus Rita embarks on a globetrotting musical escapade to discreetly find a doctor who will perform Manitas’ gender affirming surgery. Manitas is adamant about maintaining secrecy around his gender transition: he wants to protect his wife and children from blowback arising from his surgery and he plans to disappear from their lives as a further layer of protection.

Once the surgery is completed, Manitas, now Emilia Perez (both Manitas and Emilia excellently played by Karla Sofía Gascón) starts a new life and Rita moves on with her own, having been handsomely reimbursed for her role in arranging Emilia’s surgery. But Emilia isn’t gone for good…

Four years later, Emilia reappears in Rita’s life, asking to be reunited with her children under the guise of being a distant aunt. Once Emilia is reunited with her family, she again enlists Rita’s help in a humanitarian project to find and identify missing persons who have fallen victim to the cartels (possibly out of guilt for her deeds as cartel boss Manitas). The movie follows Rita and Emilia’s complicated relationship as they seek to run their humanitarian project while dealing with Emilia’s new life and identity as well as its impact on her children and loved ones.

Emilia Perez unflinchingly approaches a myriad of issues ranging from trans rights to gender identity, self-determination, healthcare, crime, sexuality, family relationships, and redemption while somehow managing to fit each of them into the scope of the story. Underneath the lofty themes lies an objectively good movie. The cinematography captures the feeling of a stage, and this movie is based on a play. The acting is compelling and engaging, every character feels real and very human. The production values are stellar and the writing is smooth and seamless.

That said, your impression of this movie will largely depend on what side of the political spectrum you fall on. I certainly do not want to make this a political review but your interpretation of the movie will inevitably be shaped by your pre-existing positions on trans rights, gender, identity, and family.

The film also comes laden with violence and sexual content, which are contextually accurate given the movie’s themes and narrative arc. The violence is graphic but there is a message about the repercussions of gang violence. There are also frequent discussion of sexuality, which should be understood in the context of gender identity.

Given its negative content, Emilia Perez is clearly unsuitable for kids and most teens. The themes, regardless of how you feel about the messaging, are beyond the grasp of younger viewers. This movie could, however, make an interesting launch pad for mature viewers who are not easily disturbed by the negative content and who are interested in opening the discussion about sexuality, gender, human rights, and the repercussions of life altering (or life affirming) decisions.