House of Gucci review

HOUSE OF GUCCI: 

RIDLEY SCOTT-DIRECTED BIOPIC IS AS DISJOINTED AS IT IS ENGROSSING WITH INCREDIBLE ACTING…AND INCREDIBLY BAD ITALIAN ACCENTS! 

By Nico Beland

Movie Review: *** out of 4

MGM

Lady Gaga, Adam Driver, Jared Leto, Jeremy Irons, and Al Pacino in House of Gucci

 

            Director, Ridley Scott (Gladiator, American Gangster, The Last Duel) brings the fascinating story of the Gucci family to the screen in the new biographical crime-drama, House of Gucci. The film is adapted from the 2001 novel, The House of Gucci: A Sensational Story of Murder, Madness, Glamour, and Greed by Sara Gay Forden, which in turn was based on the lives of Italian socialite, Patrizia Reggiani and businessman, Maurizio Gucci and how a once beautiful romance can transform into something ugly. 

            I know practically nothing about the actual events nor anything about the Gucci family and fashion company, so I have no idea how accurate this film represents what really happened or the people involved. Instead, I will be judging it as a film as what I normally do. 

            This is one of two Ridley Scott movies released about a month apart from each other this year with the first being The Last Duel, which I really enjoyed. Now, we go from Gladiator and Kingdom of Heaven Ridley Scott with The Last Duel to American Gangster and All the Money in the World Ridley Scott with this…which I am not at all against! 

            The trailers caught my interest despite many of the actors’ Italian accents sounding a little off to say the least. With that said, even though it’s pretty easy to make fun of the accents, House of Gucci has a star-studded cast consisting of Lady Gaga (Machete Kills, Sin City: A Dame to Kill For, A Star is Born (2018)), Adam Driver (Star Warssequel trilogy, Marriage Story, The Last Duel), Salma Hayek (Desperado, From Dusk till Dawn, Eternals), Jared Leto (Dallas Buyers Club, DC Extended Universe, Blade Runner 2049), Jeremy Irons (Die Hard with a Vengeance, Margin Call, DC Extended Universe), and Al Pacino (The Godfather trilogy, Scarface, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood) to name a few. 

            Well, after seeing it I can say that House of Gucci is a very inconsistent movie that’s sometimes a comedy and other times a crime-drama with very unconvincing Italian accents, but I won’t lie and say I wasn’t extremely entertained by it. It’s hard to say whether or not this is a good movie, bad movie, or somewhere in the middle, because on one hand the acting for the most part is excellent and the story I found very fascinating, but on the other the fake Italian accents everyone has are hilarious (Lady Gaga in particular sounds more Russian than she does Italian), and the film as a whole has a really inconsistent tone that isn’t sure whether it’s trying to be a gripping, Godfather-esque crime-drama or humorous like a cheesy soap opera. 

            The film spans nearly twenty years and follows Patrizia Reggiani (Gaga), who marries Maurizio Gucci (Driver), and he eventually becomes the head of Gucci Fashion. However, Patrizia’s unbridled ambition begins to unravel the Gucci family legacy which causes a spiral betrayal, revenge, and eventually…murder in her plot to obtain a controlling interest in the Gucci brand. 

            The film also stars Leto as Paolo Gucci, Irons as Rodolfo Gucci, Hayek as Giuseppina Auriemma, Pacino as Aldo Gucci, Jack Huston (Boardwalk Empire, American Hustle, Fargo (TV series)) as Domenico De Sole, Reeve Carney (Pom Poko, The Tempest, Penny Dreadful) as Tom Ford, and Camille Cottin (Allied, Killing Eve, Stillwater) as Paola Franchi. 

            Overall, House of Gucci will likely be very divisive among audiences whether you’re familiar with the real-life events or not, but I can guarantee you’ll probably have a good time with it. My thoughts on the film are all over the place, one moment I’m invested in the story and taking it seriously, the next I’m laughing at the banter and dialogue between the actors. 

            I was engrossed in the story, despite its inconsistent tone and judging by other sources, it sounds like the film took a lot of creative liberties. The benefit of that is it makes me curious to learn more about the real-life Gucci family and see what the movie did right and what it did wrong, in my opinion that’s what a biopic is supposed to do. 

You know how Ridley Scott’s The Martian won the Golden Globe for Best Musical or Comedy and it shocked everyone especially Scott himself? This I think is a more appropriate pick for that, because while it tries to be a legit drama, the characters are so exaggerated and the line deliveries are strangely comical, it’s hard not to laugh. 

            I’ve made fun of the fake accents enough in this review, but I will acknowledge that the performances for the most part are very spot-on with Lady Gaga owning every moment she’s onscreen and an almost unrecognizable Jared Leto disappearing in his role as the eccentric and dim-witted aspiring fashion designer, Paolo. Seriously, the makeup on Leto is incredible and if it wasn’t for the trailers and posters saying that’s him, I wouldn’t be able to tell, it’s almost on par with Tom Cruise in Tropic Thunder or Jim Carrey in Kick-Ass 2, and unlike his Joker performance from Suicide Squad, he’s weird in all the right ways and got several laughs out of me throughout the film. 

            I guess if I had to think of a semi-underdeveloped performance in this, I will admit that Adam Driver’s performance is a little bland here, who I usually love in films. It’s hard to tell if him downplaying his performance was intentional or not, but it seems like he doesn’t quite bring the same kinetic energy from his other roles to this one and comes off as being the typical snooty businessman who constantly shuts Lady Gaga out, he portrays the part just fine, but I think he pales in comparison to Gaga’s commanding and often manic performance. 

            House of Gucci probably won’t go down as a Ridley Scott classic, but those looking for a competently made biopic on the Gucci family with a star-studded cast, glamour, hilarity both intentional and unintentional and murder will probably enjoy their visit. Fashion and murder mixed together, it’s got a little something for everyone.