After bringing us the historical epic known as The Last Duel, director Ridley Scott gives us his second movie of the year with House of Gucci, a biographical crime drama about Patrizia Reggiani (Lady Gaga), a woman who marries into the wealthy Gucci family. As they build an empire of luxurious fashion, the family is sent down paths of darkness, control, and manipulation.
This film gave us one of the most promising trailers of the year. The advertising for this movie was enchanting, assuring a film about money, betrayal, family, power, sex, loyalty, scandal, ambition, and murder. Somehow, this movie has all of those things, but it’s one of the most boring misfires of the year. This movie could have been a cult classic, but it miraculously fails at everything it wants to be.
House of Gucci assembles one of the most impressive casts of the year. Lady Gaga portrays our protagonist, and Adam Driver plays Maurizio Gucci, the man Patrizia marries and builds the Gucci dynasty with. Our supporting cast includes the talent of Jared Leto, Jeremy Irons, Salma Hayek, and Al Pacino. These are all very skilled actors, and they’re all doing an excellent job. Leto is swinging for the fences, and at times, he feels like he’s in a different movie from everyone else, but he’s fascinating to watch as a result.
But this film is devoid of any life. This movie offers nothing for its viewers, from the bleak color grading to Scott’s surprising lack of a visual style. The film assembles an all-star cast and allows each to shine, but it has some of the blandest dialogue possible in a biopic. While Patrizia’s actions throughout the film are mildly interesting, the conversations have zero bites, and the story is unbearably thin. Every scene feels like it leads to nothing and the result is a movie that’s tedious to watch.
Perhaps the reason this film fails is the fact that it rings emotionally hollow. The movie doesn’t make you laugh or cry; it’s not funny or dramatic. It doesn’t make you angry. It doesn’t satisfy you. It’s just a long series of scenes where things happen, and you don’t care. One of the characters dies halfway through, and rather than soaking up the drama of the moment, the movie simply cuts to the middle of their funeral. The only time you care about anything is toward the final act when Patrizia’s life begins to spiral, and Gaga’s performance makes you feel bad for her.
Gaga is fully committed to her role, Driver is perfectly acceptable in his role, and even Pacino gets a chance to shout at the top of his lungs during a scene. But the editing and the musical score are all completely uninspired. In addition, the staging of every scene is so unremarkable that one hour feels like three. It genuinely feels like Scott was on cruise control during the entire production.
With a script that feels like the first draft of a great biopic, House of Gucci is ultimately an overlong slog. It’s a bloated film that goes on and on, recounting true events without an ounce of flair. Everyone who worked on this movie has done much better work, which makes this film so disappointing. You may be invested in the performances, but without a story strong enough to support its runtime of over two and a half hours, you will wait patiently for the credits to roll before bolting out of the theater and buying a ticket to a better movie.
SCORE: 4/10
As ComingSoon’s review policy explains, a score of 4 equates to “Poor.” The negatives overweigh the positive aspects making it a struggle to get through.
