"House of Gucci" Film Review
Rating: 4/5
By: Nathaniel Simpson
Gucci is one of the most profitable fashion companies in the entire world. It measures alongside the likes of Versace and Louis Vuitton, and has collaborated with the likes of Tom Ford and Disney. In Ridley Scott's new film however, "House of Gucci" explores the dark past of the Gucci family, which changed the entire company forever.
Starring Lady Gaga, Adam Driver, Jared Leto, Jeremy Irons, and Al Pacino, this movie chronicles the Gucci family and business during the late 1970s to the late 1980s. When young heir Maurizio Gucci (Driver) meets Patrizia Reggiani (Gaga), who is a simple Italian girl from a middle-class family. When he professes his love for Patrizia, he is kicked out of the family and business by his father, Rodolfo Gucci (Irons), who says that Patrizia only wants him for his money.
Many years later, the two wed, and therefore reconcile with Maurizio's father, thanks to the help from his uncle, Aldo (Pacino), and his strange son, Paoloa (Leto). He takes the newlyweds under his wing, and they rise up in the huge empire that the two older men are in charge of. However, the power gets to both Patricia and Maurizio, and it is now obvious that they will both do whatever need be to have the sole power of Gucci, even if it means murder and stabbing their family in the back.
The film uses its five stars greatly, and gives each and every one of them a fantastic role that the actors excel at, especially Pacino's, Gaga's, and Driver's characters. Leto does a stand out job at portraying the awkward and weird Paola, but it's really these three that steal the show. Gaga creates this horrible character that is almost impossible to like. She manipulates people, steals and forges signatures to get what she wants, and then eventual murder. She gives a much different performance than she did in her hit film "A Star is Born", which I enjoyed as this showed off her range of acting skills.
Obviously, the costuming in this film is outstanding. Almost everything our main actors wear looks perfect and so stylish; it makes the viewer wish they had the amount of money they have to afford those clothes. What I was not expecting however was the brilliant use of pop music in various scenes. It reminded me of the likes of Disney's Cruella, which is also a film about fashion. I think the music does an excellent job of providing the scenes with a certain vibe that it would lack without the brilliant choice of music.
The story is very compelling, and it is amazing how they are able to chronicle these twenty years in a two and a half hour story. They make us like these characters at first, only to show us the corruption and the evilness of our characters and the business they run. Now, I can't say how Gucci is run today as none of the members of the actual Gucci family are associated with the brand anymore, but it definitely was a very corrupt and horrible business, as depicted in this film.
The movie unfortunately suffers a few flaws however. Some of the scenes in this film just seemed way too drawn out, and they could have done a better job editing the scenes so the movie flows better. I think you could possibly trim off thirty minutes from this film, if I'm being honest. Also, some of the scenes in the film just seemed very odd, including the animalistic sex scene between Gaga and Driver and many of the scenes that feature Leto's character. There's no doubt that Leto did a great job, and this is probably how the person he is portraying acted in real life, but it just seemed too over-the-top and strange at times.
However, overall, this movie does a really good job at telling us this story of this multi-billion dollar company, and the family that was behind it during the 90's. It's a shame that there are a few things holding this movie back from reaching its full potential, but I still think its a pretty solid film with a great ensemble.
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