House of Gucci is a crime drama centered on Gucci fashion dynasty. Ridley Scott directed the film from a screenplay by Becky Johnston and Roberto Bentivenga. It is based on a book written by Sara Gay Forden which was published in 2001. The impressive cast includes Lady Gaga, Al Pacino, Adam Driver, Jared Leto, Jeremy Irons, and Salma Hayek.
This film starts off as a bit of a love story. Patrizia Reggiani meets Maurizio Gucci, the heir apparent to the fashion empire started by his grandfather. It does not take long for Patrizia to become enamored with the riches and luxury that such a family connection can provide. She ends up marrying Maurizio, however that starts them on a path which leads to murder and ruination.
Lady Gaga is quite good. Apparently there is some question as to the authenticity of the Italian accent, which does sound sort of Russian, but her performance was quite captivating otherwise. Driver was actually pretty engaging as Maurizio, and they both displayed a fair bit of chemistry. Unfortunately, some of the other performances ended up coming off as somewhat more of caricatures. Pacino was particularly distracting as Uncle Aldo. Jared Leto played Paolo Gucci and was pretty unrecognizable in his prosthetic makeup. His portrayal was even more over the top than Pacino’s. The film was also a bit too long and dragged at times. The murder of Paolo came toward the very end, but I wonder if the more interesting story would have been the aftermath. The film did have some bright spots occasionally, but I expected a little better consistency from someone of Ridley Scott’s acclaim. Basically, this was another film that left me with some mixed reactions. It’s not terrible, but it could have been so much better.
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