PLOT: Patrizia Reggiani (Lady Gaga) comes from humble origins, but her ambitions know no bounds. When she meets Maurizio Gucci (Adam Driver), the heir apparent to the Gucci business, she quickly helps him rise to the top of the family empire, isolating him from his family in the process. But when Maurizio turns out to have unbridled ambitions of his own, the stage is set for a deadly reckoning.
REVIEW: Ridley Scott’s had a tremendous 2021, and I don’t care what the box office says. Fresh off The Last Duel, which likely ranks as his best film since the Kingdom of Heaven director’s cut, comes House of Gucci. In some ways, it’s not unlike Scott’s prior All the Money in the World, given the focus on the inhumane ways of the ultra-rich, but with the camp factor turned up to eleven. While I don’t know if I’d call House of Gucci an Oscar-contender, it’s undoubtedly a fun flick that entertained me throughout despite the longish running time.
Of course, all the press will be focused on the fact that this is Lady Gaga’s first film since A Star is Born, but it should be noted that the performance here is the star in a different mode. Patrizia Reggiani is a larger-than-life character, making Gaga the perfect choice. It’s funny that she’s on-screen so much with Al Pacino in this because their styles are similar. In some ways, Reggiani is her Tony Montana. People will mock the over-the-top accent, but Reggiani is anything but subtle, and to me, Gaga played her perfectly. We know right from the start that Reggiani is a social climber. Still, as she turns evil and unscrupulous, Gaga’s performance becomes deliciously campy, and I refuse to believe that this wasn’t the intention by all involved right from the get-go.
By contrast, Adam Driver is lower-key as the quiet, introspective Maurizio, who’s happy to take a backseat to his wife – until he’s not. The two have good chemistry, and there’s some charm to their romance. Maurizio is shown to only really be happy during a brief moment where he’s disinherited by his father (an elegantly snobby Jeremy Irons, sporting lots of scarves) and forced to lead an existence that’s somewhat closer to working-class than he’s used to. Perhaps the two of them might have been happy had they been allowed to be everyday folks, the film seems to suggest.
Alas, no one goes to a movie like House of Gucci wanting to see any “normal” people, so the whole film is turned way (way) up with the introduction of Pacino’s wily Aldo Gucci and his gauche son, Paolo (Jared Leto, sporting a bald pate and having the time of his life). They rope Maurizio into the family business, and Patrizia, by extension, paving the way for their downfall. Pacino and Leto seem to be competing for who can chew the scenery more, but Gaga gives them a lot of competition in this regard.
House of Gucci is Ridley Scott having fun. He’s never made anything that could even be called close to a comedy (well, maybe A Good Year) but shows a lighter touch here. Reggiani is portrayed as an over-the-top villainess with few redeeming features (if any), which, in itself, is somewhat refreshing in that she’s unambiguously bad (if not quite evil). Gaga is perfect in this type of part, and she’s supported by a dream cast (including Salma Hayek as an unscrupulous “psychic”) and top-shelf production values, with Dariusz Wolski giving it the trademark Ridley Scott sheen. The score by Harry Gregson Williams is propulsive, although it’s dominated by Scott’s eclectic song choices, which range from Blondie to George Michael to Pavarotti.
If you walk into House of Gucci expecting a straightforward true-crime saga, you might be turned off by the camp factor. However, the trailer and even the posters should have prepared audiences for what Scott was going for. House of Gucci is camp escapism and a high-fashion version of a gangster film to some extent. I thought Gaga and everyone else in the cast was far from subtle, but to be honest, subtlety has no place in a movie like House of Gucci.
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