Review: House of Gucci (2021)

House of Gucci

Rating

Director

Ridley Scott

Screenplay

Becky Johnston, Roberto Bentivegna, Becky Johnston (Book: Sara Gay Forden)

Length

1h 38m

Starring

Lady Gaga, Adam Driver, Al Pacino, Jeremy Irons, Jared Leto, Jack Huston, Salma Hayek

MPAA Rating

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Review

Real life with a soap opera flavor makes up Ridley Scott’s look into the collapse of the Gucci dynasty as the family who gave its name to the luxury clothing brand succumbs to petty internal squabbling that allows outside forces to worm their way into the lives of one of the most celebrated business families in Italian history.

Each country has their legendary business dynasties. The US had the Vanderbilts and the Rockefellers while Italy had the Guccis and the Versaces. The latter of those two families had a recent TV movie made about the assassination of one of its members. The former is given similar treatment in this film with Lady Gaga taking the lead as Patrizia Reggiani, the daughter to the owner of a small trucking firm who runs into Maurizio Gucci (Adam Driver), the youngest member of the Gucci family, with whom she becomes smitten. As the pair marry against his father Rodolfo’s (Jeremy Irons) wishes, they begin a behind-the-scenes assault on the family legacy trying to earn Maurizio his proper due while exposing the internecine conflicts between Rodolfo, his brother Aldo (Al Pacino), and his nephew Paolo (Jared Leto).

It’s strange and cliché to say, but Lady Gaga really does seem born to this role. She infuses Patrizia with simplistic naivete that eventually transforms into conniving malice. Subsumed beneath her heavily accented performance is the popstar glam that made her one of the most creative forces in music and from behind that comes a riveting, magnetic performance. It’s a character you shouldn’t empathize with, but she brings you right to the brink of madness and ultimately takes you over with her. Driver, as her romantic fuse doesn’t bring a lot to the role. He’s a good actor and while he plays the character with the kind of subtle detachment necessary, it’s hard to warm up to the man and thereby care about his success or failure.

That lack of concern mutes what Scott is attempting to do with his film. The story is salacious and compelling, but apart from Lady Gaga’s performance, only Pacino adds much to the effort. Irons is self-serving, but forgettable and the less said about Leto’s cartoonish, over the top performance the better. Had Scott leaned into the salaciousness element more so than he did, Leto’s character might have felt like a better fit, but he was acting in a completely different film. Contrast his performance with Lady Gaga’s and you can see the difference between working within the needs of the script and working to elevate oneself above everyone else in the most outlandish and unnecessary way possible. Perhaps that’s just how he approaches all such roles.

As for Scott, his film has a lot that works, but most of it doesn’t. It amounts to little more than a salacious melodrama that could have fit well into the television landscape of the period in which it’s set. Shows like Dynasty, Dallas, and Knots Landing seem clear inspirations here, though I doubt Scott would see it that way. It’s an engaging drama to an extent, but it’s the kind of backstabbing and in-fighting that have been a part of television for decades and while this film may seem tame comparatively, it doesn’t ultimately fill the soul or the mind as a result.