House of Gucci

 

House of Gucci
Starring Lady Gaga, Adam Driver, Jared Leto, Al Pacino
Directed by Ridley Scott

If you think visiting your family during the holidays is hectic, try doing it when your family is insanely rich, popular, and influential. Sometimes blood isn't thicker than water, and you'll have families that literally claw over one another in order to achieve the power and prestige they feel they deserve, and no family in history carries this stigma more than Gucci, a once-powerful family who harnessed their ability to craft timeless fashions, but when it came to their own family dynamics, they could never make it work. Power, betrayal, loyalty, scandal, ambition and murder are words synonymous with the Gucci name, and despite their outward beauty they were plagued by inner ugliness that ultimately resulted in Gucci as we know it today not being run by anyone in the Gucci family.

In 1978, trucking firm office manager Patrizia Reggiani (Lady Gaga) attends a party and meets Maurizio Gucci (Adam Driver), a wannabe lawyer who also owns fifty percent interest in the Gucci fashion line through his father Rodolfo (Jeremy Irons). The two begin dating and Rodolfo threatens to cut Maurizio from the Gucci line if he marries Patrizia, but he goes against his father's wishes and marries her anyway, and he's cut from the will. When Patrizia ends up pregnant, she sees it as a way to integrate back into the Gucci family, and with the help of Maurizio's uncle Aldo (Al Pacino), Maurizio and Rodolfo make amends before his death, and Maurizio is welcomed back into the family, which includes eccentric recluse Paolo (Jared Leto), who wants to be a designer himself but lacks any discernible talent. As the years pass, Patrizia hatches a plan with the help of psychic Pina Auriemma (Salma Hayek) to get Maurizio to gain full control of the Gucci company and will stop at nothing - including murder - to get what she wants.

Ridley Scott has dominated the box office this year offering not just one, but two sweeping epics. "The Last Duel" and "House of Gucci" may be completely different in their genres and storytelling capabilities, but both provide top-notch performances and intriguing stories that don't make you groan at their long runtimes. "House of Gucci" is probably the weaker of the stories, as the film meanders through different tones that come into contrast with one another, as some actors perform with stern dramatic chops while others are flying off the proverbial handle in the same scene, but it only adds to the chaotic nature that the Gucci family had, filled with a blend of over-the-top personalities and subdued sophistication that made them household names.

The trailer listed adjectives used to describe the family, and they couldn't be farther from the truth. Everyone was power hungry, but especially Patrizia, who embarks on a decades-long plan to usurp the Gucci name for herself and Maurizio. Betrayal occurred on the daily, as family members continually backstabbed each other and resorted to threats and blackmail to get what they wanted. Their only loyalty was to themselves, and their betrayals led to numerous scandals, but none more powerful than the murder that occurs that unravels the entire family for good. Through it all, it's the ambition of Patrizia that ultimately brings down the family and places them in the list of infamy when it concerns family dramatics.

Spanning from 1978 to the late 90s, this isn't a short film to say the least, but if the long runtime deters you, it shouldn't. Ridley Scott enlisted a top cast to keep you fully entertained throughout the process, with the ever talented Lady Gaga holding the captain's chair as Patricia. She hasn't starred in many films yet, but her last outing ("A Star is Born") earned her an Oscar nomination, and she'll easily earn her next one here - and might even win it. Despite people arguing over her accent (she's supposed to be Italian, but it does sound somewhat Russian), it's only a small kink in her otherwise transformative performance. She plays Patricia as a power-hungry mogul who almost always is one step ahead of everyone else, and has an undying desire for power and wealth above all costs. Gaga absolutely kills it, both literally and figuratively.

Another equally awards-worthy performance comes from Jared Leto, who has a knack for choosing projects that result in him fully transforming into someone else. Be it drug-addicted transgender woman Rayon in "Dallas Buyers Club" (which earned him his Oscar) to a rather laughable (pun intended) version of the Joker in "Suicide Squad," Leto changes into his character like no one before him. Here, he's again unrecognizable as Paolo Gucci, the more eccentric "black sheep" of the family. His eccentricity and Gaga's off-the-wall performances sometimes give a jarring tonal sense when they're going against Adam Driver's stern Maurizio or Al Pacino's stoic Aldo, but despite these two differences in performances it works in a very unique way.

You can't have a movie centering on one of fashion's most iconic families without going all out on the costume designs, and since this is a Ridley Scott production he spared no expense at creating the perfect look for the Gucci clan. Janty Yates crafted some beautiful outfits for Lady Gaga and company that expresses more than just fashion, especially with Gaga's case. She starts off with a more low-brow look due to her blue-collar upbringing but as she gets more in-tune with the Gucci family, her outfits become more glamorous but also more eccentric and erratic, much like her personality slowly unraveling over time. Likewise, Arthur Max's production designs serve as a better storyteller than any CGI could do, showcasing Rome, New York City, and the Alps with a classic sophisticated grace that's unparalleled today, both of which only adds to the tension and epic storytelling the film provides.

Showcasing another awards-worthy performance by Lady Gaga, "House of Gucci" may be a bit longer than most films, but the story it tells needs every second to fully tell it, and it's quite an intriguing one at that.

The Score: A+