This is the second movie this year for director Ridley Scott after The Last Duel and, unlike the historical drama, his approach this time is not entirely serious. It is actually rather weird. Jumping lanes between comedy and drama rather clumsily. At various occasions I felt awkward towards my reactions to scenes. Bringing a laughing face to what ends up being a serious chapter and warming myself to real tension only to find out that everybody is joking.
House of Gucci
Patrizia and Maurizio and the story of love and murder
House of Gucci tells the story of a key period in the history of the Gucci fashion house by focusing on “Patrizia Reggiani”. Who sets her eyes on Maurizio the heir of 50% of the Gucci empire and manages to marry him. Then pushes him hard through the years to take his place on top of the family business, never shying away from actively scheming against other members of the family. A long journey filled with hopes, dreams, lies, deceit and eventually much worse things.
The element of peculiarity, or let’s call it the untraditional treatment, in the way the film feels is definitely intentional. The film didn’t make a mistake, it only took a risk. Which is understandable putting into consideration that it’s a real story and almost everybody knows how it’s going to end. It is always a great thing when a veteran filmmaker shows the courage to take risks with projects but it is also a good occasion to remind ourselves that risks can misfire.
Among the various areas where our movie failed, the most disappointing department is the screenplay. How long our running time is versus how little we explored everything that matters. Every angle of our story stole time from the other angles and never reached maturity. The key story of the relationship between our two leads felt rushed. Patrizia and Maurizio went through a lot together and their emotions towards each other seriously shifted. While our film presented so little to justify those shifts or study how each of them truly felt towards the other in critical moments and it didn’t really come in favour of other sides of our story.
Our story takes place in the core of the world of fashion. We’re talking about Gucci through the 70’s, 80’s and 90’s, and the transition of the gigantic fashion house plays the most important role in the shifts in the nature of relationships between the members of the house of Gucci. That is also poorly explored. It’s a movie about fashion with so little fashion in it. I heard a lot of lines explaining the philosophy of the Gucci products, the fact that it wouldn’t evolve and the so many other brands that managed to adapt and surpass it, but I just didn’t see it. Wouldn’t it be weird if a movie with the word “Gucci” in its title fails to land a nomination in costume design?!
What really works in “House of Gucci” is the study of “Patrizia” in the opening chapters. Offering the profile of an ordinary girl whose eyes shine at the rise of an opportunity. Playing the long game, knowing how to sleep on the winning ticket and when exactly to cash it. You see that in the design of her encounters with her love interest and other members of his family. Nothing is ever said about her except in the confrontation between Maurizio and his father and at this point, quite honestly, I’d seen much from her to suggest that they both could be right and without any contradictions in the performance of Lady Gaga. It was the finest display of her quality performance. The same could not be said about the second half though when all we could see is just reasons to hate her and suggest that she’s not really that smart or even in control of her own tools.
Adam Driver is great. He even managed to make the American English with the Italian accent not sound so weird .. and it was generally speaking weird and silly. Al Pacino and Jeremy Irons are also great. Jared Leto is just weird .. and slow. The worst moments for the entire cast, with the exception of Pacino, is when they had to share the screen with him. He would take so long to convey emotions and speak so slow, it seemed they didn’t know what to do meanwhile.
The epic story of the Gucci fashion house with the Patrizia/Maurizio drama in the middle of it is a challenging project. It’s tricky but it’s also rich. In the hands of Scott, that cast and everybody involved in the project I expected to see a triumph. I don’t believe it was facing a deadline so it can end up being half cooked. “House of Gucci” reminds me a lot of Ashton Kutcher’s Jobs. A movie you can’t call bad but can’t perceive as worthy.