I wasn't originally going to write a review for "House of Gucci," because it's not good enough or bad enough to get worked up about. However, the more I think about this movie, the weirder it is. Just the talent involved demands some attention and scrutiny. At the top of the list is Ridley Scott, who can add this picture to his growing collection of films about wealthy people being horrible to their family members. The cast is boggling, with Adam Driver playing young Gucci scion Maurizio, Lady Gaga as his wife Patrizia, Jeremy Irons as his disapproving father Rodolfo, Al Pacino as his uncle Aldo, and Jared Leto as cousin Paolo, truly one of the most unfortunate abuses of latex seen on the silver screen in a while. Jack Huston and Salma Hayak also show up in minor roles.
Now, I understand why the film made money, because the trashy soap opera antics of people with famous last names, combined with a little true crime intrigue will always attract a certain amount of interest. However, this is such a terribly ineffectual telling of a story that should have way more entertainment value than it does. It's two and a half hours long, and doesn't do too badly setting up the characters and all of the stakes and positions and alliances, with all the expected camp and ridiculousness that the ads have suggested. However, when we get down to the business of the actual criminal undertaking, suddenly the perspective shifts almost totally away from Patrizia, the central figure in the story up to this point, in favor of Maurizio. I don't begrudge him the attention, but it means the complete sidelining of a major player for an unacceptable amount of time. As a result it loses track of the emotional throughline of the major conflict, completely fails to build any tension up to the climax, and speeds through the third act to arrive at the ending with a thud.
Some of the performances are so good that it's easy to ignore the film's flaws for a good long while. Lady Gaga is fabulous as the hot-blooded Patrizia, and it's fun to watch her navigate the Gucci family's complicated dealings, 1980s fashions trends, and her own emotional well-being. Pacino and Irons are dependably strong, and Adam Driver does a lot with a role that is very half baked. All of these actors are playing broad caricatures of Italians, using accents that can be charitably described as cartoonish, but one can still suspend disbelief enough to accept them as human beings. The same is not true of what Jared Leto decides to do with Paolo, which is to don a fatsuit, adopt a Super Mario speech pattern that seems to be picking a fight with the entire notion of being Italian, and gnaw on the scenery with everything he's got.
"House of Gucci" has been dinged from other corners for being tonally inconsistent and playing up the buffoonery of the Gucci clan. My biggest problem with the film is that it's woefully unbalanced, oddly edited, and badly written. The movie is about the Gucci company more than it is about any of the Gucci family members, which is great if you're making a movie about a big success in the fashion world, and not so great when you're making one about family betrayals, fraud, and murder. It's a very bad sign when it feels like the film just kind of skips over the motivations of the killer, who clearly has very complicated feelings about the whole endeavor. I would've loved to see what some of the actors were really capable of with these roles, especially Driver and Lady Gaga.
"House of Gucci" looks great at least, playing up the big hair and fashions of the 1980s, and showing off the Guccis' wealth. This is a film with a fairly high budget, and is proof that Ridley Scott still has the clout to get things done his way. Unfortunately, despite the high class production, the film feels ill-conceived and sometimes almost incompetently put together. No matter how juicy the material is, or how colorful the characters are, a melodrama still needs to be properly dramatic, and "House of Gucci," for all its fireworks and eye candy, never managed to put down a solid enough foundation to sustain its operatic aims.
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