Review: House of Gucci
Archie Lockyer laments the squandered promise of Ridley Scott’s odyssey through the Gucci family’s infamous history
The tale of the Gucci family seems to be an almost mythical fable on the vices of greed, deception and family infighting. It’s a tale ripe for a well-executed, dramatic take that shows the lengths people will go to in order to remain rich. However, this isn’t the story that I watched. Instead, when I went to the cinema, I received an overly bloated, banal film that left me with one question. Why?
Starting off with the positives, some of the performances are good. Lady Gaga’s portrayal of Patrizia Gucci helps carry you through, remaining an engaging presence due to Gaga’s amazing ability to show the transition from innocent to cutthroat with ease. Adam Driver also puts in a serviceable performance as Maurizio Gucci although, honestly, it’s nothing to write home about.
Jared Leto’s performance as Paulo Gucci, which has been widely mocked and memed online, is something else.
However, there is another end of the spectrum of acting in House of Gucci: insanely bad to the point of hilarity. Jared Leto’s performance as Paulo Gucci, which has been widely mocked and memed online, is something else. His Mario-like accent and cartoonish exaggeration swing from bad to zany so often that it genuinely made me consider if I unironically think Jared Leto is a genius. On another note, Jeremy Irons cannot do an Italian accent to save his life and more than once I saw him slipping into British chap mode.
One of the core problems of the film is its narrative. Ridley Scott seemingly wants to include every detail and multiple perspectives to really get across the full story. However, the perspectives flip-flop so much that the narrative loses any meaning or commentary beyond simply being a retelling of some events in the lives of the Gucci family. For me, this is particularly felt in the characters, where the main thing we know about Maurizio Gucci is that he is nice and he has no interests or passions, making him appear like a cardboard cutout.
Overall, House of Gucci was such a disappointment. With its disjointed narrative, shaky acting and lack of any real reason to exist, I feel that it is not worth the time as you will certainly feel shortchanged.