Written by Andreas Babiolakis

Well, it’s finally here. House of Gucci has been promoted to death ever since its “Heart of Glass” laden trailer dropped months ago. If anything, a number of people pushed aside Ridley Scott’s earlier film of 2021 The Last Duel in anticipation of this film (when that would ultimately be the better of his works this year). If there was anything longer than the wait for a film that was just being started to be filmed in the same year it drops (the luxuries and spoils of being a cinephile in 2021), it’s the duration of this latest Scott feature; it did not need to be two and a half hours, and its sluggish pacing and aimlessness definitely shows as a result of this. If anything, this highly anticipated biopic starts its first hour off as a massive chore to watch: drawn-out Cliffs Notes of Patrizia Reggiani’s rise-and-fall as a member of the Gucci empire (and the infamy that would soon come). Within this hour, we have a role call of each member of this story, and everyone comes out storming with their incredibly strong — occasionally buffoonish — Italian drawls. Had House of Gucci carried on in this way, it would unquestionably be one of 2021’s largest bores.

Luckily, the turning point is when House of Gucci stops trying to be a satire — which it doesn’t do a particularly good job at — and turns into the dramatic downward spiral that it builds up to become. While I don’t think that the film becomes significantly better, it’s strong enough that it can even be taken seriously by this point. It’s around the time when Reggiani’s true intentions begin to leak outside of her best efforts to hide her climb, and her life starts to slip from underneath her feet. Furthermore, seeing rifts inside the Gucci family begins to turn things more substantial (even though moments are sometimes wasted, like Jared Leto’s strong-yet-insane monologue about the differences between shit and chocolate). The main attraction here (and even during the film’s sloppier moments) always ends up being Lady Gaga as Reggiani: a magnetic force that shows that her A Star is Born role wasn’t just a lucky turn; while the latter film is much more truthful and natural, Gucci Gaga is actually more dominant at times, and seeing her take control of a wobbly vehicle of a film is actually enough of an incentive to see the film. Even though I don’t think her odds are in her favour presently (given the success of Kristen Stewart and Jessica Chastain so far), write Gaga down as a Best Actress nominee: I don’t doubt that this will happen, unless five other stronger performances and Oscar campaigns show up.

Lady Gaga saves the day in *House of Gucci*, matching the film’s desired intensity and its accidental cheese with ease.

Throughout the picture, I was struggling to tell if Scott was intending for a silly tone with this film. Hell, the strongest performance here has the most way-out-there accent of the bunch (and the more authentic voices turn into stereotypes soon enough). Is he trying to mock the Gucci family? Does he sympathize with them, or was he pushing for trying to understand why Reggiani was driven to wanting to murder her ex husband? We don’t get enough of the darker side of this story, which only acts as the closure of Gucci (when this could have been the main attraction for sure, given the aftermaths soon to come). Yet, despite how inconsistent the film is and how misguided it feels, I do feel like House of Gucci is actually fairly connective at times, with moments that stick out as the golden scenes (and, thankfully, the trailer didn’t spoil most of them). I can only imagine these dramatically engaging moments (many left during the climax, sans the use of slow motion that decimates the intended punctuation point) being attached to a better film: one that focused more on the trials (that came after the assassination of Maurizio Gucci) than the perceived hokeyness of this fashion empire family. Ridley Scott can get distracted by the wrong focuses, including the Hollywood-izing of a story that was meant to be as raw as some of the final moments we share with Gaga’s tour-de-force performance. I can imagine a much stronger film here. Then again, whilst reflecting back on that first hour of pure cheese and exposition, I can also picture a far worse film. With that in mind, House of Gucci is somewhere near the middle: a film that starts off terrifying you with where this can go, and occasionally surprising you once you pass this threshold of sloppy calamity.

Andreas Babiolakis has a Masters degree in Film and Photography Preservation and Collections Management from Ryerson University, as well as a Bachelors degree in Cinema Studies from York University. His favourite times of year are the Criterion Collection flash sales and the annual Toronto International Film Festival.