All style and no substance
Ridley Scott has a long and successful career, with hits like Alien, Blade Runner, Thelma and Louise, and The Martian. His misfires have been few and far between, but even those movies that haven’t worked (G.I. Jane, The Counselor) can still be considered watchable. ..
However, the film falls short in almost every way. The acting is poor, the story is convoluted, and the fashion scenes are laughable. In short, this movie is a disaster and should be avoided at all costs! ..
The cast is great – Lady GaGa, Adam Driver, Al Pacino, Jared Leto, Jeremy Irons – but they have been lumbered with a script that only scratches the surface of the juicier aspects of the Gucci family’s story. I imagine the book that this movie was based on (The House of Gucci: A Sensational Story of Murder, Madness, Glamour, and Greed) was probably better as with a title like that, it certainly appears to be everything you want if you’re after a shocking and scandalous tale about the upper elite. Unfortunately, the screen version is not so interesting!
The movie does a good job of covering the basics of the Gucci family story, but it spends too much time on the business side of things.
The Gucci story is a heartwarming tale of love and determination. Lady Gaga shines in her role as Patrizia, and Adam Driver is excellent as Maurizio. The film is well-made and provides a great insight into the lives of the Gucci family.
To get her husband back into his father’s good graces, she cozies up to Maurizio’s uncle Aldo (Al Pacino) and is soon taken under the wing of this friendly but dishonest gentleman. She then meets Aldo’s son Paolo (Jared Leto), a rather unintelligent fellow who desperately wants to be a fashion designer within Gucci, despite his lack of talent.
Aldo’s influence helps Maurizio to reconcile with his father. Rodolfo dies soon after, and this is when the Gucci Empire starts to go into decline. To understand why, you need to see the movie or better yet, look up information online (or read the book). The movie fails to be as interesting as it should be, despite the sordid events that follow next in the story. ..
The problem with Scott’s writing is that he often jumps ahead in the story, without giving us a chance to understand the characters or their motivations. The performances help to cover up some of the weaknesses, but it’s clear that some of the actors do better with their Italian accents than others.
Jared Leto’s performance as Paolo in “Dallas Buyers Club” is not bad. He provides intentional moments of levity whenever he appears on screen, which is certainly a good thing. More time spent with him and less spent with the rather boring Maurizio would have been a good thing, even if Driver is as reliably good as ever.
Ridley Scott’s latest movie, House of Gucci, is not completely unwatchable – with this cast, how could it be? However, it falls into that cliché of being all style and no substance, with fewer scenes of high drama than you might expect, despite the bloated running time. As Ridley Scott is at the helm, the movie certainly looks the part. But this should have been good, campy fun, and not the tiresome family drama that it ultimately ends up being.
