Review: House Of Gucci

I love the fact that we live in a world where the director of Alien can also make a film like House Of Gucci, and 42 years later no less.

Ridley Scott’s latest film is inspired by the incredible and insane true story of Patrizia Reggiani, and is based on Sara Gay Forden’s 2001 book ‘The House of Gucci: A Sensational Story of Murder, Madness, Glamour, and Greed’. And what a film it is.

The movie details how driven young woman Patrizia (Lady Gaga) comes to fall in love with and marry young Maurizio Gucci (Adam Driver), heir to 50% interest in the Gucci fashion house, and how their rise to power at the head of the iconic company, also comes with a destructive fall.

Envisioned as an awards season frontrunner, this drama has instead had a far more interesting response. Splitting critics and somewhat upsetting some of the real people who were there to witness this tragic tale and its participants play out.

Yet, in a year that has seen drama, and especially acclaimed real life infused drama (like Spencer, King Richard), bomb at the box office, Scott’s House of Gucci has emerged as an unlikely smash hit.

Why is that? Well, because it refutes the standard ‘inspired by true events’ Oscar bait drama approach in favour of something far more risky, far more interesting and dare we say far more entertaining.

Assuredly it will (and already has) face accusations of glamourising tragedy or criminality but those coming out with that viewpoint have completely missed the point of what is one of the best films of last year.

House of Gucci is a true life waltz into the mad mad lives of the rich and infamous. A cavalcade of style, bubbling family dysfunction and very heavy Italian accents, and most certainly one of the most downright most fun films you'll see in the last year.

Every big moment feels as though it should come with an "end of part 1 ad break", and Ridley Scott delights in leaning in to it all so confidently and extravagantly. Never once worrying about backlash, he directs just as Becky Johnston and Roberto Bentivegna write, fearlessly and with their eyes on the undeniable fact that this story and its characters are mad and perfect for such a wild film narrative.

The tragedy is not glossed over, it is built up to, we are just used to it all being done one particular way with these kinds of films but Scott opts for a far different and more entertaining route.

Albeit, not at the expense of the stakes and dark simmering human tensions. Much like Martin Scorsese’s seminal The Wolf of Wall Street, this is a film of unhinged excess and greed, detailing its destructive effects, but is also a tale of gender barriers and family fracturing fracas that has the deadliest results.

House of Gucci is a sensational, absurd and fierce soap opera with an impeccable cast of Oscar winners/nominees at its disposal. Actors all turning in a range of performances that are each transfixing in a plethora of differing ways.

Lady Gaga and Driver are the Oscar assured leads of the piece, with Gaga especially set to be the star of the show. They are joined by a brilliant supporting troupe in Al Pacino, Salma Hayek and Jeremy Irons, who each play things massively all in, uniquely withdrawn or classically professional. And then there is Jared Leto, and I doubt we will ever find the words to describe Leto's unforgettable performance. I still don’t know if it was good, bad or somewhere in-between but my word I soaked in every inch of his balding Super Mario-like presence.

This is a sprawling and alluring drama, that is so well delivered in its audacious energy that you simply cannot resist a single moment of its indulgent 158 minutes. Its success is both deserved and gratifying to see.

Fabulous. This is cinema sweetie, and Ridley still does it like few others!

15
Director: Ridley Scott
Starring: Lady Gaga, Adam Driver, Al Pacino, Jared Leto, Salma Hayek, Jeremy Irons
Release Date: Out Now (Cinemas); 21st February (DVD/Blu-Ray)