House of Gucci
I don’t know about you, but I’m ready for a change from this film season overloaded with superheroes, ghosts, inhuman critters and murdering lunatics.
Director Ridley Scott’s “House of Gucci" rescues us with a big and beautiful (if somewhat overlong) story about the world-famous Gucci fashion empire.
Sit back, relax, and watch the fashionistas fight it out for control of the company, especially fascinating since the insurrection is led by none other than a female outsider named Patrizia Reggiani, played by none other than Lady Gaga.
Based on Sara Gay Forden’s book about the downfall of the Gucci dynasty and shot in several parts of Italy, the film looks (and sounds) Italian enough, though some of the faux accents don’t always help comprehension.
Socialite Patrizia is both beautiful and ambitious, and tries to worm her way into the family via youngest brother Maurizio (Adam Driver), who doesn’t seem to mind. He is in law school and doesn’t plan to run the business anyway – a good thing, because his dad Rodolfo (Jeremy Irons) disapproves of the match, and more especially of the fact that Patrizia’s family is in “the transportation business” (i.e., buses).
Driver’s Maurizio, who owns 50% of the Gucci empire, just wants to sell it. Patrizia wants to own it. She’ll have to outlast or outfox the three Gucci brothers to get her way.
The cast alone is enough to sell tickets: the elder Gucci (Irons) and Driver are joined by a bald Jared Leto and Al Pacino as the other Gucci brothers.
There’s soap opera, there’s camp, greed and just messiness as each family member has a different idea about what should be done. And at 2.5 hours, it’s a tad too long.
The film’s story has quite a history of its own. Planned, written and cast four separate times, it’s been in pre-production since 2006. Maybe that’s why sometimes it seems like parts of it are from some other film.
But it’s shot beautifully and I’ll be damned if it isn’t fun to watch.
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