Jacques Audiard’s Cannes-winning musical drama Emilia Pérez set in Mexico, follows the stories of four different women. The film starts by introducing us to a lawyer, Rita (Zoe Saldaña), who is forced to take on questionable cases. Despite her talent as a lawyer, she is unappreciated, overworked and underpaid. With her skills, she is able to keep her murderer client out of jail, and this piques the interest of Manitas (Karla Sofía Gascón), a fearsome cartel leader.

Manitas confides in Rita, telling her that they want to live their true, authentic self as a woman. In order to do so, however, Manitas has to fake their death. Convinced by the promise of wealth, Rita helps Manitas by arranging everything: faking Manitas death, scheduling for the surgery and moving Manitas’ wife Jessi (Selena Gomez) and children to another country. Manitas is now Emilia Pérez, and as this new woman, she strives for a different life of redemption and hope, which later leads her to meet Epifanía (Adriana Paz). I’ll stop here, as I don’t want to delve too deep into the story to avoid spoilers.

Audiard’s film perfectly intertwined musical sequences within the story. These sequences were seamless and offered more insight into the plot. I applaud the film’s composers and choreographers, for such a wonderful mix of music and dance. I was really blown away by Saldaña especially; I already knew she was a great actress, but I had no clue how much of a musical talent she also possesses!

Although this film does follow four women’s stories, the majority focuses on Emilia and Rita, who were portrayed fiercely and authentically by Saldaña and Gascón. The two developed a beautiful and moving friendship, and it really brought forward the film’s themes of forgiveness, redemption and being true to oneself. It’s intriguing how the film places viewers in this predicament where you empathize with honestly, some bad people. With its mix of genres, the film leaves you with a whirlwind of emotions, with some humor, thrills and tears.