House of Gucci Review

This movie was a bit of a hit or miss. The acting was amazing and the period details were spot on. Adam Driver and Lady Gaga did fantastic jobs (even if Gaga's accent seemed MIA in a couple of scenes) and the 80s came alive in this movie in all their gloriously tacky splendor. This Youtuber compared the real outfits worn by Patricia and Maurizio with the ones featured on the show). Jared Leto was unrecognizable and his performance was incredible. He had the best lines, imo, and real chemistry with Al Pacino. Their scenes were the best part of the movie.

The movie started strong, setting up Patrizia as an enterprising villain/heroine and portraying the Guccis as a dysfunctional family ready for plucking. Then Adam Driver's Maurizio finds his spine and you expect the movie to start rushing to its climax...but it doesn't. Patrizia's plot moves along but it has almost no emotional energy as the movie does not explain why she felt so betrayed and wounded by the divorce. I feel a little montage of the European/NY Jet Set culture of the 80s they belonged to and the kind of status the name gave her would have gone a long way towards explaining that. As it is, all we see is Maurizio's glam St. Moritz set (probably the best scene in the movie with the best costumes),which Patrizia doesn't seem to be part of. If you want a good breakdown of Patrizia's motivations, check out the Amanda Halley's take here.

And as Patrizia's emotional arc flounders, so does the movie. The assassination plot and trial end up are overshadowed by corporate/family shenanigans as the Guccis fight over the company and Mauricio finally loses it to a conglomerate. The movie should be a crime drama but it turns into an awkward documentary about the evolution of intellectual property portfolio investments in the late twentieth century, and murderous Patrizia becomes just one more Gucci who lost the family name. Frankly, that's a lot less compelling than a juicy marital murder.

Still, it's an entertaining movie with great costumes (no high fashion moments, just glorious 80s tacky junk which seemed to disappoint some people) and fantastic acting. Worth seeing.