House of Gucci felt like a strange film for me to be so excited about. Biopics (however truthful they are) are not usually my cup of tea, but the trailer for Ridley Scott’s latest film was massively intriguing to me. Perhaps it was my recently cultivated crush on Adam Driver, or my interest in seeing how he and Lady Gaga would perform as a massively toxic and passionate couple after a still from the movie became massively memed.
Either way, I was there at The Showroom at the first 12pm showing on opening day, alone apart from about four other old people who kept making loud comments to each other that I could hear despite being on the complete opposite side of the cinema.
Regardless - I loved the film. It’s fantastically atmospheric, with Scott delicately toeing the line into moments of campiness before bringing it back to the fierce and powerful storyline of Patrizia’s (Lady Gaga) ruthless pursuit of power.
As a character-driven plotline, much has to be said for the performances of the two leads. Lady Gaga is unstoppable. I’ve still not seen A Star Is Born but I’ve heard great things about her performance, and if it's anything like her display in Gucci, then I’m sure I will be hard-pressed to find a bad word to say about it.
She masterfully switches from a coy, driven, and ambitious young woman to a wretched, jealous mother who has lost everything she spent her life snatching from the hands of others. She is charming, calculating, and hilarious. It’s fascinating to watch her slow transformation into a bejeweled Gucci diva. She becomes obsessed with the luxury of the brand and we watch her slowly sink her claws into Maurizio and his family, plotting and pushing her reluctant husband into taking on the family business he so despises.
Adam Driver is also masterful in his metamorphosis, as Maurizio moves from an uncomfortable, love-struck young lawyer to the cold, hard-headed businessman Patrizia wants him to be. I particularly enjoyed the short sequence of the early stages of their courtship, where Patrizia is very obviously beginning her machinations of enchanting Maurizio. Their awkward, bashful interactions are the perfect encapsulation of two people with little in common trying to start a spark. Because Patrizia doesn’t love Maurizio Gucci. She loves Gucci itself. She falls in love with her potential future with him, not him.
I really liked how the costuming aided in the gentle time progression of the film. We begin in the 1970s world of large collars and coordinated suits and move through to the 80s with mullets, perms, and leather jackets. You never really know exactly what time you are in, but you’re aware of it moving forward as Patrizia and Maurizio’s images change and reflect the shifts in their power dynamic. Subtle audio cues from the changing musical landscape and interior design also help with the sensation of fleeting time.
But I can’t sit here and praise this movie forever. There’s one big ol’ problem with House of Gucci.
That problem is Jared Leto.
I really just have no respect for this man. As a teenager, I unfortunately subjected myself to Suicide Squad (2016) and I can safely say it was the first film I walked out of thinking “What if not all movies are....good?”
And the taint of that movie, plus his cringey method acting, has blackballed him in my opinions forever. He plays Paolo Gucci, the untalented family embarrassment. And, as method acting goes, he does play an unlikable buffoon remarkably well. But I literally physically cringed at every scene he was in. It almost felt like he was reading off a different script from everyone else.
He doesn’t fit in with the tone of the rest of the film, and it feels like he’s attempting to be a satirical caricature. Where Driver and Gaga play their dark, powerful roles with a hint of humour, Leto just goes full rambling, bumbling ham in every scene. He stands out as horrendously unfunny and a joke. It’s really quite jarring to witness the tense human interactions between members of the cast and then to have him, essentially, clowning about in the background. A far more toned-down performance, by literally anyone on earth, would have sufficed rather than Leto. Your attention is drawn to him because he demands it loudly and crudely, not because he has earned it through any great skill.
I do also think the film is slightly too long. It's quite a beast at 157 minutes, and I did zone out at the two hour mark and miss some of the plot. This was because I was planning what salad combination I was going to have on my post-viewing Subway. I really was starving.
But lingering time frame and Jared Leto aside, House of Gucci really is a treat. It looks lovely, it's really quite funny in parts and Gaga and Driver are incredibly charismatic leads. It’s not the greatest movie I’ve ever seen, but it delivered pretty much exactly what I thought it would; lush visual decadence, talented performances, and some very tasty cinematography.
It almost feels like a Gucci product itself - something very expensive, very beautiful, a bit excessive, and maybe unnecessary, but you sure as hell get a kick out of it anyway.