House of Gucci

As I'm on holiday at the moment in Portugal, this was seen as "Casa de Gucci". But the soundtrack was English with Portuguese subtitles. At least, I *think* it was English!

Positives:

• Other than the bare outlines, it's a story I knew nothing about, so it made for interesting viewing. And who doesn't want to see some escapist high-fashion, flashy cars and Italian high-living on the big screen?

• Adam Driver delivers another stonking performance. He delivers the best of the accents on show and is a delight to watch whenever he's on screen. His performance is deliciously subtle and under-played. A model for acting lessons.

• Al Pacino, in full-on Pacino mode, is also great as Maurizio's uncle: owner of the other half of the empire.

Negatives:

• The accents! Where do I begin? I felt a desperate need mid-film to order a Cornetto and go compare my car insurance online. While Driver and Pacino tend to rein it in, most of the rest of the cast assume accents approaching a bad parody of Italians. Jared Leto and Gaga are particularly guilty.

• I appreciate that the part of the "idiot" Paolo Gucci was meant to be comedic, but Jared Leto seems to almost be in a different film entirely. There's 'over-the-top' and 'waaaaay over-the-top'.

• I've seen some other reviews praising Lady Gaga... saying that it proves her performance in "A Star is Born" wasn't just a "flash in the pan". Personally, I didn't feel it. I appreciate that the character of Patrizia is a larger-than-life one. But, although she did have some impressive scenes, for most of her performance I felt like she was obviously acting, and sometimes over-acting. The accent didn't help.

• The film has a banging set of tunes, no argument. But for a sprawling drama told over a few decades (the film is nearly 160 minutes long!), music should be used to anchor the movie as to which year you are currently in. Donna Summer "I Feel Love": so it must be 1977. But the movie doesn't consistently follow that rule. It's the early 70's, but suddenly George Michael's "Faith" blares out. #Unsettling.

• This may be my lack of concentration, but there seems to be an assertion in the film (presumably completely false) that Aldo Gucci was supporting/producing knockoff Gucci products for the mass-market: a "lucrative product line" that was later canned by Maurizio. I was personally confused by this bit of the story.

Summary Thoughts on "House of Gucci": This was not the <2* bust that I thought it might be from early word I saw from other reviews. The fact that it turns out to be a 158 minute film surprised me, since it felt long... but not that long. So that's a good thing. And it has its moments for sure. But this is not a movie that I will be in a hurry to revisit, since the accents and some of the performances (Jared Leto - take one step forwards) are not ones that I thought worthy of the potential that the movie had. For me, Ridley, I'll take "The Last Duel" any day.

(For the full graphical review, check out #onemannsmovies online. Thanks.)

"House of Gucci" is a beautifully shot picture with great people involved. It is somewhat underwhelming and a tad too long, but there are great moments sprinkled throughout the movie.

The film is based on the real murder of Maurizio Gucci and the downfall of the Gucci family. It all begins when Patrizia Reggiani marries into the Gucci family and the rest is history.

Lady Gaga is great as the ambitious Patrizia Reggiani but she is also inconsistent with her performance. Pacino, Driver and Leto are good per usual. It is however a daring choice by the filmmakers to have the actors speak in English with an Italian accent. It is not a huge problem, but it does occasionally take the viewer out of the experience.

The first forty minutes of the movie are great. The characters are well introduced, and the plot is intriguing. The rest of the movie does not maintain this standard. The last 30 minutes are beyond underwhelming and the climax is cold and emotionless.

There are issues with "House of Gucci" but the production design is not one of them. The film is beautifully shot and the locations look great. "House of Gucci" is very stylish and the costume department really outdid themselves.

With everything said, "House of Gucci" is a decent film with outstanding visuals and great acting. If you like fashion, then you should give this movie a watch. It is beautiful and quite enjoyable despite its excessive runtime.

House of Gucci is a new crime drama directed by Ridley Scott, the director of Gladiator and Alien.

The film is inspired by true events surrounding the family behind the Italian fashion house Gucci. When Maurizio Gucci (Adam Driver) begins a relationship with the outsider Patrizia Reggiani (Lady Gaga), he is disinherited by his father Rodolfo Gucci (Jeremy Irons). He suspects that Patrizia is behind Maurizio's family money. That's how the two have to make it without the support of the Gucci family. Years later, the two are married and have a child together. Maurizio's uncle Aldo Gucci (Al Pacino) thus contacts him again and brings him back into the family business. The Gucci fashion house is once again going under multiple names, leading to creative differences, exposing betrayal, revenge and even murder cases.

There have been many changes in the making of this film. Martin Scorsese, for example, could have directed the film at first, but Ridley Scott was eventually given a directing position. Together with the casting directors, he also had many ideas for the casting of the roles before they finally came to the chosen actors and actresses.

After the many changes in casting and direction, they probably should have looked back at the writing crew of the film, because the final script was written by more novice writers, which can sometimes be seen in the film. The story can sometimes seem a bit messy and so long-winded, because the story makes many jumps in time. Some relationships come across as rushed, which can cause some loss of credibility.

What comes out best in the film about a well-known fashion brand is therefore the costumes and make-up of the characters. Janty Yates can expect film award nominations for this. Still, the film has received complaints from actual members of the Gucci family that the relatives were better dressed in real life compared to the actors in the film. They also credibly convey the places where the story takes place.

Al Pacino comes out the best of the film cast and knows how to provide the best and most believable accent compared to the entire cast. Lady Gaga and Adam Driver have good chemistry together in the film, but their relationship sometimes comes across as weak. Patrizia is clearly showing signs that she is more behind the Gucci family's money than she really loves Maurizio. Their accents can also come across as a bit unusual. Lady Gaga has more of an Eastern European accent than real Italian. Her characters seem to come more from Russia in some scenes. Of the entire cast, Salma Hayek is the only one who has received help with speaking in the correct accent. This is probably because she is married to the man who now owns the Gucci brand. If they had helped the entire cast a little more with their accents in the film, they would have come across a bit more like people from the same country. Who even seems to play in a completely different film is Jared Leto, because in the film he wears a fattening costume and also has a strange shaved hair style. In the film, he comes across as too exaggerated compared to the rest and speaks excessively in a high-pitched voice. He sometimes sounds just like the video game character Mario.

The second Ridley Scott film of this year is here! After his medieval epic The Last Duel flopped brilliantly at the box office, he can expect more in this respect with House of Gucci. Not only is Gucci one of the most famous and prestigious fashion brands, Lady Gaga is also in the lead role. I guess the strong fanbase of the singer will not be asked a second time. In the film, she suddenly finds herself part of the Gucci dynasty and becomes the protagonist of a toxic power struggle.

Yet Gaga is still a relative unknown in Hollywood-speak. She made her big breakthrough in the 2018 music film A Star is Born. Scott, as he did in The Last Duel, has assembled an incomparable star ensemble. Adam Driver, who seems to be establishing himself as the director's new darling, evergreens Al Pacino and Jeremy Irons and an unrecognisable Jared Leto embody the key roles in the Gucci clan. In addition, Salma Hayek emerges as a kind of mentor for Gaga's character. But who is Gaga playing anyway? She is the young and rebellious Patrizia Reggiani. An extroverted perennial who worms her way into the millionaire family with charm and fascination. She is courted by the ambitious Maurizio Gucci, played by Driver, who actually wants to leave the intrigues and sometimes shabby business dealings of his predecessors behind. Once he falls in love with Patrizia and marries her, he is left with no choice but to get involved again. Driver and Gaga share a very passionate chemistry in the first act, which you fully buy into with little dialogue and through pure body language. While Driver plays rather reserved and shy, this quality emanates especially from Gaga, who doesn't hold back in any of her intimate scenes. At least the two characters are able to unfold their own approaches here. But when Al Pacino's character Aldo Gucci, Maurizio's uncle, insists on his nephew's re-entry into the family business, the two lose all closeness to each other. Rather, it is only an extremely manipulative relationship that both actors have to show in a few scenes. All the more Aldo and his son Paolo Gucci, portrayed by Leto, come to the fore. From this point on, the film lapses into a few minutes of megalomania, largely due to Leto's performance. He is exclusively eccentric and desperate and all in all a tragic figure. Whether you find this Super Mario caricature brilliant or miserable is a matter of interpretation.

House of Gucci begins extremely quietly and shows the rise of the lovers in well-done visual sequences. The performances are generally fitting and although the film seems anti-Italian, I love it when Adam Driver cruises through Milan on his Vespa. But as interesting as the pecking order and hierarchy within the Gucci family is, from the second act onwards the film devolves into an overplayed and hyperactive tragedy that, despite the craziness of its scenes and actors, actually manages to be long-winded. Fashion, creativity and the business idea are not a theme at all, which in no way brings us closer to this brand that is so present. In the end we have a family epic (the film lasts 2 ½ hours), with exclusively unsympathetic characters. One more request to Ridley Scott: just let your actors speak English and don't embarrass them with Italian stereotypes with accents.

Greetings again from the darkness. I've never purchased or owned anything Gucci, but that didn't prevent me from enjoying the heck out of Ridley Scott's film that brings the longest, most expensive and dangerous real life episode of 'Family Feud' to the big screen. It's co-written by Becky Johnston and Roberto Bentivegna, and is based on the 2001 book, "House of Gucci: A Sensational Story of Murder, Madness, Glamour, and Greed" by Sara Gay Forden. Brace yourself for a (mostly) true wild ride, and for what is likely to be one of the year's most divisive films - plenty of love and hate (just like the actual story).

What happens when a brand is so closely associated with a family name? The arguments begin on who 'deserves' to be a Gucci, who is a 'real' Gucci, and who should make the decisions that impact the Gucci family and business wealth and reputation. During the extended run time (2 hours, 37 minutes), we see many of the iconic Gucci items: the Flora scarf, the moccasins, the bamboo bag, and the watches. And though high fashion is always present, director Scott has delivered a spectacle of romance, family riffs, extravagance, greed, power, betrayal, revenge, and crime.

Lady Gaga (Oscar winner, A STAR IS BORN, 2018) stars as Patrizia, the newest Gucci. Hers is not blind ambition, but rather calculated and laser-focused. That she implodes a dysfunctional family is only a portion of the story. After marrying Maurizio Gucci (Adam Driver), Patrizia immediately begins manipulating her husband into reconciling with his family and taking on an active role in a business for which he previously had little interest. This is simply step two (the first was marriage) in her grand scheme to control the business and the money. Maurizio's father Rodolfo (Oscar winner Jeremy Irons, REVERSAL OF FORTUNE, 1990) is ailing, so it's Uncle Aldo (Oscar winner Al Pacino, SCENT OF A WOMAN, 1992) to whom Patrizia directs her attention. She plays it like a chess match - only this is more entertaining to watch unfold.

Also in the picture is Paolo Gucci (a truly unrecognizable Jared Leto, Oscar winner, DALLAS BUYERS CLUB), Aldo's son, and a family outcast. Paolo is a wildly creative individual who tends to his pet pigeons and tries desperately to find his place in the family. Jack Huston plays Dominico De Sole, Rodolfo's consigliere and the family attorney. Each of the characters is given their time in the spotlight, including a terrific breakfast scene with Pacino and Irons. Of course this is mostly Patrizia's story, so it's Lady Gaga's performance that will attract much of the attention and commentary. I found her mesmerizing and twisted fun to watch as she proceeded with backstabbing and trickery. Driver's quietly intense approach makes the perfect contrast to hers.

If you are familiar with the story, you know that Maurizio does eventually run the company, and he also tires of Patrizia's family-crushing antics ... which send him back into the arms of Paola Franchi (Camile Cottin, STILLWATER, 2021). This turns the campy and juicy melodrama factor up to 11 (on the Spinal Tap scale). Patrizia's frequent trips to fortune teller and TV psychic Pina Auriemma (Salma Hayek) cause a massive tonal shift in the film, leading to the well-documented conclusion. If all this isn't strange enough, Ms. Hayek is the real-life spouse of the CEO of Gucci's present-day parent company, Kering. Reeve Carney ("Penny Dreadful") has a small, yet vital role as up-and-coming fashion designer Tom Ford.

In this movie, it's easy to describe some performances as hammy or over-the-top, but that's likely to only hold as a first reaction. Leto's characterization of Paolo sticks out so much from the others ... but he was known as eccentric, and at best, was patronized by the family. It seems highly likely that his personality and approach stood in stark contrast to the old-school style of his father Aldo, or the more staid personalities of his Uncle Rodolfo and cousin Maurizio. Lady Gaga as Patrizia is cunning and shrewd in her calculated approach to re-structure the family and the business. She plays whatever games she must to get where she wants to be. I found her first half performance to be truly outstanding. Pacino is the actor who has trademarked hammy performances over the years, yet here, he fully grasps his role and character, and is a delight to watch.

Much of this is documented by history, though the Gucci family claims not all is or was how it seems. Whether the boost in counterfeiting/knock-offs went down in the 70's and 80's as it's portrayed here, might be an area worth researching, but this is much less a case study in business principles as it is one in family dynamics. I'll certainly understand those who argue against the story structure here, but the entertainment value proved to be enough for me. As the Gucci tagline goes, "Quality is remembered long after price is forgotten", but the backstabbing and disloyalty is never forgotten - despite providing great theater (and fashion).

Opens in theaters on November 24, 2021.