House of Gucci chronicles one of the most well-known and influential fashion brands in the world. A lot of people going into this movie may already be familiar with the story: What they’re not going to be prepared for is the level of camp this movie throws in. I mean that in both good and bad ways.
Don’t be surprised if you start shouting out lines of dialogue and responding to all the Italian-loaded caricatures and clichés thrown in your face. Sometimes they have more cheese than a pizza.
Inspired by the infamous true story, Lady Gaga stars as Patrizia Regianni, a woman working in her family business. While at a party one night, she meets Maurizio Gucci (Adam Driver), an aspiring lawyer who owns 50% of the Gucci empire. Her charms eventually win him over, but his father Roldofo (Jeremy Irons), tries to talk him out of it because of her lower class.
Al Pacino costars as Aldo, Maurizio’s uncle, and Jared Leto is his son, Paolo who wants to be a designer. Leto’s performance in particular is part of the camp that I was talking about. We’re not sure if his performance is supposed to be authentic or if it’s meant to be unintentionally hilarious when he’s on screen. He sometimes comes across like he’s doing a comedy sketch that draws out. Again, this is both good and bad.
Patrizia begins to scheme about taking over the Gucci empire after Maurizio’s father writes him out of the will due to their marriage, but then, they reconcile and his father forgets to transfer the stocks back over to Maurizio. It’s at this point that Patrizia attempts to cheat both Aldo and Paolo out of their shares and acquire a controlling interest. She also enlists the help of a psychic (Salma Hayek) to tell her what the next step in her plan should be.
Director Ridley Scott and his cast have fashioned this material (no pun intended) in a way that’s baffling, frustrating, and, in some scenes, leaves audiences howling with laughter.
At times, Lady Gaga’s portrayal hints at being sympathetic. She, Driver and the rest of the cast get a fair amount of screen time and it’s amazing how much the movie is able to juggle their insights and motivations. It did a surprising job of holding my interest for its two and a half hour runtime.
Sure, “House of Gucci” may stumble here and there on its runway, but overall, I wasn’t bored and I found this to be a wacky mess that was highly entertaining. This is a movie where you may want some wine to go with its cheese.
Grade: A-
(Rated R for language, some sexual content, brief nudity and violence.)
