House of Gucci (2021 | USA | 158 minutes | Ridley Scott)
Earlier this year, Ridley Scott’s historical drama The Last Duel interrogated the nature of truth with a story about power-hungry men and a woman who refused to stay quiet, despite facing mortal peril for her bravery. Now, with House of Gucci, he brings us another story of powerful men, tremendous wealth, and a fashion institution facing decrepitude, all shaken up by one ambitious woman. Without getting into questions of accuracy, it’s an incredibly wild ride powered by the heat of showy performances by a cast crowded with A-listers.
As the film opens, we meet Patrizia Reggiani emerging from her car in form-fitting work dress, crossing a dusty lot, facing catcalls from the men who crowd a job site, and settling in behind a desk in the wood-paneled office trailer where she works as a secretary for her father’s transportation company. Her voiceover informs us that although Gucci is a name that sounded so sweet, it’s also a Tuscan curse. As embodied by Lady Gaga with a determination to show that her ability to leap from a music career to a captivating screen presence in A Star is Born wasn’t a one-off fluke, Patrizia is the catalyst for what will be a violent transformation, shaped by betrayals, conspiracies, hot Tom Ford, overseas investors, and eventually (spoiler for history) a murder.
Over more than two-and-a-half hours, we watch a classic story unfold: girl crashes a party above her station, meets boy who’s heir to an impossible fortune, aggressively pursues him until their love drives him from a disapproving and distant father. In this dark fairy tale, their rebound from the simple life and domestic bliss involves forging an alliance with an uncle, finding a foothold in the family business, climbing the ranks, ruthlessly turning against everyone to consolidate power, callously sacrificing a marriage and losing control of the company along the way.
The “boy” in this story is Adam Driver as Maurizio Gucci, an introverted law student, son of a reclusive retired actor, Rodolfo Gucci (Jeremy Irons, pencil-moustached cape aficionado), who happens to own exactly half of the namesake fashion house and sees himself as a guardian of its refined and elite status. While Rodolfo sits in his airless palace reflecting on the past, his brother Aldo (Al Pacino, an overbearing presence who we first meet while undergoing a shiatsu massage) has all of the hustle, expanding the brand’s retail presence and boosting profits by licensing the logo to perfumes and cheap souvenirs. Finally, there’s Aldo’s idiot son Paolo (Jared Leto, buried in outlandish make-up and pastel corduroy suits) is never short of ridiculous ideas to take Gucci into the future.
As a chameleonic and striving outsider, Gaga’s Patrizia is well-positioned to appraise this landscape of egomaniacs, steer her husband from his idealistic rejection of the family business into the halls of influence to the pinnacle of power. The journey sprawls from working-class Milan to Manhattan boutiques, Tuscan cattle ranches, Fashion Week runways, and Alpine getaways, each with era-appropriate hairstyles and wardrobe changes. Like the film, the roller coaster of success is a great deal of fun, but anyone who scorns Gaga should know that they’re in for a world of hurt.
Chase and I saw a preview of the movie last week. It’s a film that’s way too big for just one review, so on the event of it’s wide release, we tried to break down our feelings about it with a little roundtable.
OK, let’s start with initial reactions:
Chase: When comparing it to Scott’s other work this year, this film may even surpass that high mark of the similarly solid The Last Duel.
Josh: There’s a lot to chew on! I definitely need some time to gather my thoughts. My immediate response is that an aesthetic object, overbrimming with style, fantastic locations, and incredible pulls from the costuming archives, it’s an absolute success.
Chase: For me, this film was everything I had hoped for and more. And when I say more, I really mean it. The key to the entire story is that it is all about excess, which I mean fully as a compliment. Everything is intentionally over the top from the performances to the music to the settings. The absurd wealth that the Gucci family had bleeds into all of the elements of the story, making it all feel so decadent that the looming downfall becomes just as explosive as everything else.
Josh: Yes, totally. On top of all of the luxurious fashion, Ridley Scott has curated a wildly varying set of performances from actors who rarely express an awareness that they’re all in the same movie. It’s a really wild, if often jarring watch. Someone could argue that it’s a lot too long, but when there’s this much to look at, it feels ungrateful to complain.
Chase: I think the length of it and the unique approach are much of the point as it feels almost like a surreal parable rather than the standard, straightforward biopic-esque story we see far too many of. This felt alive and chaotic in the best way possible.
Josh: I will say that as a piece of storytelling, it was fascinating to me how deeply uninterested Ridley Scott seemed to be in delving into the actual human drama or corporate intrigue at the heart of this true story. He keeps so much of it at arm’s length or entirely off screen and boldly refuses to give us even one character to find completely sympathetic.
So on its own terms, I guess we’re agreeing that it’s a success? The story is fine, but the real attraction here is the characters and what these actors do to portray them. How about we run through the big ones, starting with the one who makes it all tick.
Lady Gaga as Patrizia Reggiani
Josh: In this menagerie of wealthy weirdos, Lady Gaga is our tether to the real world, the primary motivation for the chaos to come, and the bearer of most of the film’s emotional baggage. She brings incredible Theater Kid level of preparation, a commitment to a bizarre accent, and an on-brand willingness to don all sorts of costumes and haircuts to trace the character’s evolution from secretary to vengeful wife. She’s really great in this and even though her character isn’t exactly endearing or sympathetic the film wouldn’t work at all without her.
Chase: The fact that one of the best lines of the film was improvised by Gaga herself tells you all you need to know about the precise wavelength she was operating on. Every single decision she makes is what gives the film its unique energy. It is hard to imagine anyone else being in the role and being able to deliver the performance needed to bring it all to life.
Josh: She’s such a force of nature that there’s the movie Gaga is in and then the movie(s) everyone else is in and we’re lucky when they occasionally intersect and we get to see the bizarre frequencies when they occupy the same frame.
Chase: Agreed, I think she is the top spot for best actress of the year next to Kristen Stewart in Spencer.
Josh: Her accent is of a different universe and will get all the headlines, but it’s her facial expressions that do most of the work. From the way her eyes light up when Maurizio uses his “cheat code” of dropping his last-name when he introduces himself at a too-fancy party she’s crashed, you know that Patrizia won’t rest until her eager seduction of Maurizio is a success. From the way she tracks him to a college bookstore, writes her name in lipstick on the windshield of his Vespa, and expertly rolls up her overcoat as knee padding when she finally gets him alone in a rowboat on a foggy river cruise … she’s the driver for everything that happens in this messy story. She convincingly takes the role from determined naivete to polished charm offensive to backstage power player. Watching her forge alliances to nudge her husband from his lawyerly dreams back heart of his family’s business is the catalyst for the story. It’s an incredible arc but she makes it believable — from falling in love to steely determination to succeed at all costs.
Chase: All of the different initial scenes you mention are great, though what sticks with me is when the film gets into the darker territory as Patrizia feels her access to the power and wealth of the Gucci family slipping away. As we see the anger and betrayal that she feels give way to desperation, Gaga really gives it her all in a series of over the top monologues to calmly cold statements.
Josh: Absolutely. From office worker and party crasher to boutique shopping sprees and iconic fur-adorned skiwear, she’s completely credible as someone that shouldn’t be crossed and who will bring that same determined energy to exacting spiteful revenge.
Adam Driver as Maurizio Gucci
Josh: I suppose the guy has also played a Darth Vader fanboy, but between this, the Last Duel, and Annette, quite a year for Adam Driver and heel turns! We meet him as an aloof student who finds his happiest moments doing manual labor among the regular guys in the Reggiani (access to afternoon delights with his fiancee are an obvious workplace perk) who’s driven by love to renounce his father and all the comforts that come with being a Gucci. He’s reluctant to step onto the corporate ladder and once he starts climbing the film kind of loses track of him. Gaga guides him to the precipice of power, and when he gets there he just casually throws her over the edge at the first sighting of a tall blonde in a chic white one piece ski suit schussing down the slopes.
Chase: To me, it was interesting to see how his character was always capable of betraying those around him. Sure, Patrizia does nudge him to turn on his family but he also doesn’t take all that much convincing. That he then turns on her in the fallout felt inevitable, an extension of how he was really always looking out for himself above anyone else. I felt that he was never really all that good of a person, he just is good at pretending he isn’t in it for the money and the power that being a Gucci brings with it.
Josh: Driver isn’t the flaw in the movie per se, but it’s really odd that the movie has no interest in tracking his turn to the Dark Side. Driver is consistently one of the most magnetic young actors; so I guess I was hoping for more. But a circus like this needs a square in the center, and I suppose that an argument could be made for keeping us in Patrizia’s point of view.
Al Pacino as Aldo Gucci
Josh: In contrast, this is not … shall we say a subtle performance from Al Pacino. He comes in hot and rockets through all of his scenes with fiery self-assurance. It’s unclear whether he did any preparation or was just creating the egomaniac character on the spot. Either way, it’s something to behold!
Chase: Pacino is always great though this may be my favorite performance of his in recent memory. He is charming yet calculating, a unique cocktail of a character that he really gets to lean into. The fact that he is then just left as a broken old man with little to his name or his reputation is a sad turn of events. However, it was yet another inevitable twist of fate that comes when living amongst a pit of callous vipers as your family.
Jared Leto as Paolo Gucci
Josh: It pains me to say this, but Leto’s performance as a sad balding clown in ridiculous pastels was, um, really tremendous?
Chase: I also was pleasantly surprised as how Leto really commanded every scene he was in. Do I still think a character actor could have brought a similar if not better craft to the role? Yes. Does it feel occasionally weird to see Leto’s eyes underneath the fat suit and bald cap? Oh yeah. It is always going to be weird when a film doesn’t cast people who both look like the character and could do a great job of portraying them. Still, Leto really captures the insecurity of Paolo even as his accent is the most absurd of them all.
Josh: I can’t imagine that the character is accurate and am nowhere near 100% confident that he’s meant to be hilarious, but his oafish failson with terrible ideas and worse style was pure tragic comedy. The degree to which he bumbles through life, struggles to think of the correct words, and then consistently mispronounces them in the most stereotypical ways makes no sense at all. Yet, I cracked up every time he was on screen, intentional or not. He’s probably going to get an Oscar nomination for this and I’m not even going to be mad about it.
Salma Hayek as Giuseppina Auriemma
Josh: When we first meet Hayek playing a television psychic who catches Patrizia’s attention while she’s binging freezer gelato, I foolishly assumed that it was a fun little cameo. I thought she’d ham it up for a scene and collect her paycheck. But like everyone in this movie there is no such thing as too much and she keeps popping up, having latched onto Patrizia as her sole confidant, advisor, and eventually a fixer with connections to Milan’s seedy underbelly.
Chase: Ah, but of course. All of that is indeed real, though perhaps exaggerated, and shows how quickly the wealthy family would turn on each for money. Hayek is great and fits right in with the chaos of the rest of the film.
Josh: I know I mentioned the running time nudging toward bloat, but sign me up for the spin-off of these two getting up to capers and doing crimes. It’s a whole mood and the film could’ve used more of it.
Jeremy Irons as Rodolfo Gucci (and the matter of accents)
Josh: Maybe Jeremy Irons had the right idea by simply refusing to even pretend to know that he was playing an Italian … and everyone should’ve taken a cue from him and scrapped the wildly varying accents at the first table read? Who are we kidding, there was never a table read for this! That would have required everyone being in the same room.
Chase: Honestly, I am loving the all-over-the-map accents and total lack of consistency between them. Fidelity to accents is not what makes a great movie and, if anything, the fluctuating in accents was both chaotic and entertaining the more the film went on.
Josh: In an interview with Deadline, Ridley Scott made his position on the matter of fidelity exceptionally clear: “In The Last Duel, there’s no French accent. That would’ve been a disaster, and yet, it’s all French. Who cares? Like, shut the fuck up, then you’ll enjoy the movie.”
I agree wholeheartedly with this position, though it kind of makes me surprised that he didn’t stop the cast from doing ~waves arms~ whatever it is they were doing. Perhaps, since it’s the season of giving, we can be charitable and imagine that their wildly divergent approach to an English-language approximation of Italian reflects the degree to which each person in the sprawling and squabbling Gucci family was meant to be living on their own figurative island.
I’ve perhaps picked at the seams of this movie more than you, but I think that we’re agreed that this is an event movie of the highest order. I may have wanted a little more and have some lingering criticisms of the presentation, but that doesn’t mean that I won’t be coming back for seconds, likely in the form of millions of twitter memes.
Chase: Yeah, for me there are definitely many flaws when it comes to pacing and some writing choices. However, they all melt away in the glorious four-course meal (plus a desert) that is this film.
House of Gucci opens in theaters on November 24.
All images courtesy Metro Goldwyn Mayer Pictures.