Just when we thought we couldn’t fall any more in love with Paul Mescal (or shed another tear over his myriad of heartbreaking performances), this asshole has to go and do an opera. An opera! It’s like he’s trying to kill us.
While big Broadway adaptations may have been all the rage over the past few years (one of which Mescal will be starring in multiple decades from now), of course our favorite Oscar-nominated sad boy found a way to dial up the drama.
Mescal stars alongside Melissa Barrera (In The Heights) in Benjamin Millepied’s Carmen, a (very loose, as in almost completely unrecognizable) modern-day adaptation of the classic 1875 Georges Bizet opera of the same name. While the film will utilize “selected lyrics” from the opera’s libretto (sung by a choir in the original French) to underscore certain scenes, most of the score is an original by Nicholas Britell; yes, the very same composer responsible for Succession’s unskippable banger of a theme song. We’ll definitely be watching this one with the volume all the way up.
Per the film’s official summary, this version of Carmen revolves around a different sort of dangerous love. Carmen (Barrera) is a young refugee forced to flee her home in the Mexican desert after the brutal murder of her mother (which, based on the trailer, seems to occur mid-dance). Shortly after crossing the border, Carmen’s group becomes embroiled in a deadly encounter with a guard and his partner, Aidan (Mescal), which ends in Carmen and Aidan escaping together. They soon find themselves falling in love in the relative solace of a (ridiculously moody) nightclub owned by a friend of Carmen’s mother, but their time is running out as the police begin to close in.
While this is a completely different story than the original, if general opera rules are to be believed the final confrontation will be big and dramatic and definitely not go well for at least one of the doomed lovers. Make sure you have your tissues ready.
Carmen premieres April 21 in select theaters.