Okay.

So…

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Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta can act.

I knew this.

I’ve seen her live.

I enjoyed “A Star is Born” (2018) and thee Lady Gaga can indeed entertain.

 

Germanotta is quite effective in her crafts, and I almost forgot that I was watching her in this film. I thought she personified Patrizia (née Reggiani) Gucci adequately, though I had no reference to who she was prior to my viewing. Upon review of archival footage of the former Mrs. Gucci, I think Gaga hit the marks.

My favorite parts of her performance were the fluctuations in her accent. The more affluent she became after she married Maurizio Gucci (Adam Driver), son to the head of the fashion empire, the deeper her specific Italian dialect was. Like the film’s soundtrack, her tone and speech acted as a time lapse. Her character, more than anyone else’s, was presented almost like a physical depiction of the fashion house’s transformation. As her prominence and affiliation with Gucci rose, the steeper the brand declined overtime.

A beautifully thematic negative correlation chart of a screenplay about a fashion dynasty. Eighth grade me is yearning! 😝😝😝

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But this film had its challenges. First, the film’s runtime was entirely too long for such an abrupt finale. It was a great idea to bookend the film with the lead up and aftermath of Maurizio’s tragic death, but the final two minutes of the feature were significant and felt like a blink.

So Patrizia just escorts her estranged husband’s mistress out of his home then we cut straight to her and her accomplices pleading guilty to the conspiracy and murder of her husband?

What?!

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I should note, though, that I loved the quick court scene during the finale because the judge kept calling out Patrizia’s maiden name “Reggiani,” and I honestly forgot all about that name, which was the crux of her entire persona. She reminded many, and was offended when told otherwise, that she was a damn “Gucci,” even if married into the name. And she meant it.

She. Is. Gucci. Period’t.

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The editing was strange. It hurried the pace, but then cut the drama of certain moments that needed more time. Then there were scenes that felt like they dragged on for way too long, including:

• the scene when Maurizio and Patrizia smashed in the office at her father’s business
• the scene when Paolo Gucci’s (Jared Leto) wife continued singing opera as his debut fashion show was abruptly ended by the government seizure of the licensed Gucci logo
• the scene when Patrizia berated Maurizio’s assistant Domenico De Sole (Jack Huston) about her nonacceptance of the divorce at her daughter’s recital

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I adore Al Pacino and Leto as actors, but I detested their performances as Aldo and Paolo Gucci, respectively, and that may have been by design. Their characters reminded me of what I notice when White writers try to write Black characters, almost like they’re stuck in this 1969 Blaxploitation stereotype loop that is specifically hyperbolic and inescapable. The screenplay introduces Paolo as this outlier who does not fit the luxurious profile of the family’s repertoire. Aldo and Paolo’s father-son portrayal as one half of the Gucci empire is the physical (wardrobe) and thematic (screenplay) opposite to that of their counterparts Rodolfo (Jeremy Irons) and Maurizio, with the latter emphasized with a refined, stoic dignity that translated to strength and power.

Irons’ portrayal of Rodolfo Gucci, the former head of the house, felt like he was acting in a completely different, more serious film. He was poised and commanding, even as he ailed. His performance rescued the film from not being just a Jackson Pollock-paint dripping of film elements on a canvas.

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As a lay person who has some knowledge of high fashion history, I appreciated this film’s portrayals of key figures. I immediately recognized Anna Cleveland van Ravenstein impersonating the whimsical stride of her iconic mother, former supermodel Pat Cleveland in the scene where the Guccis attended a Versace show. I totally knew that was Tom Ford interviewing with Maurizio, who eventually took over and resurrected Gucci’s house, as soon as I heard Domenico refer to him as “…a menswear designer from Austin, Texas.” The Anna Wintour and André Leon Talley actors were spot on and lovely. I enjoyed the fashion financing 101 course that the film offered—a great supporting and necessary subplot to balance the ongoing tensions between the family members. It also showcased how swiftly financial collapses of high-fashion houses could occur.

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“House of Gucci” is not even close to a top-tier film by Ridley Scott, and not my favorite of the two movies he’s directed and released during 2021—that would be “The Last Duel.”

In all, I’m “meh” about the film. I assumed it would be a hyperbolic mess and it totally was, but with finesse and style and some challenges. Not too shabby, but probably not something I’d classify as “high replay value.”