“Emilia Pérez” is bold and daring musical treatment of subjects most often covered in telenovelas — Mexican soap operas — and in crime series such as “Queen of the South.”

It’s about a Mexican cartel boss who decides to change his life and his gender, to “leave everything behind” but still have the blood money earned as a ruthless gang leader. A defense attorney willing to do anything for money will be coerced into arranging it all.

But the Israeli surgeon’s warnings about the limits of hormonally and surgically ending gender dysphoria will come back to haunt one and all.

“I can fix the body. I will never fix the soul.”

It’s a French film — written and directed by the writer-director of “A Prophet” and “The Sisters Brothers”– a tale told mostly in Spanish, with a Mexican subject and Hollywood and Spanish stars.

Action franchise queen Zoe Saldana has perhaps her best role ever as Rita Moro Castro, a driven 40something single lawyer whose defense of drug lords draws her into the orbit of that one cartel king who’d like to be a queen, and give up the stresses of murderously maintaining an empire. Saldana sings, dances a bit and lets us see the calculations that go on when someone is promised great riches to arrange and keep the biggest secret of all.

Transgender Spanish actress Karla Sofía Gascón has the break-out role of Manitas Del Monte, one of the top men in the illicit drug trade who’d trade all that for the chance to be her true self, reborn as Emilia Pérez.

Selena Gomez is Jessi, the unknowing younger wife and mother of Del Monte’s two children, spirited off to Switzerland after her husband’s faked death, never the wiser. Being the most experienced singer and dancer in the cast, Gomez tackles the few moments that could be called “production numbers.”

And Edgar Ramírez plays the rough customer who wins the love of Gomez’s “widow,” but who brings out the cartel killer in the “newborn” jet setter who misses her children, Emilia.

Audiard’s audicity, adapting a Boris Razon novel, folding in songs by Camille and Clément Ducol, bowls the viewer over in the first act, which is all Saldana as we’ve never seen and heard her before. We see Rita kidnapped and coerced, then globe-trotting, diving into the research that brings her to the Tel Aviv doctor (Mark Ivanir) who will do the surgery, pocket the cash and deliver that warning.

The film’s big finish has action, pathos, fury and bloodshed.

But the middle acts, where Emilia Pérez has her coming out, reconnects with her “fixer” lawyer and pulls her kids and her still-clueless ex-wife close to her, sag and slow the movie’s sprint to a crawl.

The forgettable songs and limited dance sequences remind us of all the things this genre-bending/gender-bending thriller is not — a proper, emotionally resonant musical, an opera (despite somes songs recited, “recitative,” not sung) — and the one sure thing it is, gimmicky.

Gascón is effective as the gender-changing lead, a convincing grilled (gold teeth) and face-tattooed goon transformed into a woman. But before we stamp her name on an Academy award, maybe we should consider the performance beyond the stunt. Does she make anybody care about her fate? A non-singer “singing” (recitative) with one convincing release-her-inner-thug moment in between scenes caressing her kids doesn’t really make the sale.

Adriana Paz brings more humanity to her performance as the woman Emilia falls for after her transition and Gomez, adding another credit to her own transformation, is able to hold her own with her elders.

But the film’s opening act is where we connect with the most interesting character and performance. Saldana may not have the title role, but she’s the observer swept up in all this, the one most will identify with and frankly, the Oscar contender worth rooting for. She abandons her action credentials and glam (showing her age) to play a woman with her own agenda, risk-assessing skills and hole in her soul.

Audiard loses track of her in the middle acts, and “Emilia Pérez” palpably withers away when he does.

Rating: R, violence, sexual situations, profanity

Cast: Zoe Saldana, Karla Sofía Gascón, Selena Gomez, Adriana Paz, Mark Ivanir and Edgar Ramirez.

Credits: Directed by Jacques Audiard, scripted by Jacques Audiard, Thomas Bidegain, Léa Mysius and Nicolas Livecchi, based on the novel by Boris Razon, songs by Camille and Clément Ducol. A Netflix release.

Running time: 2:12