Ridley Scott had two big (and very different) projects released in 2021: The Last Duel and House of Gucci, and the latter has been receiving mixed reviews – and here’s why. Although Ridley Scott is best known to many for his work in the realm of sci-fi with classics like Alien and Blade Runner, his work covers a lot more than that. Scott has also explored genres like buddy crime with Thelma & Louise, historical drama with Gladiator, psychological horror with Hannibal, and biographical crime with American Gangster, and his latest project, House of Gucci, falls into the latter category.
Based on the 2001 book The House of Gucci: A Sensational Story of Murder, Madness, Glamour, and Greed by Sara Gay Forden, House of Gucci centers on the romance between Patrizia Reggiani (Lady Gaga) and Maurizio Gucci (Adam Driver), with the former marrying her way into the dynastic Italian luxury label. However, the real power of the family business is held by Maurizio’s father Rodolfo (Jeremy Irons) and his uncle Aldo (Al Pacino), and if an outsider like Patrizia wants to be a true force at Gucci, she’ll have to pit the rest of the family against each other. Patrizia and Maurizio eventually find themselves at odds, and her rage ends up turning murderous and scandalous.
Unlike many other releases, House of Gucci was granted a theatrical release, and while there was a lot of expectation around it due to its cast and director, reviews haven’t exactly been the best. At the time of writing, House of Gucci holds a 65% score on Rotten Tomatoes based on 85 reviews, which is considered a mixed reception. Those who have given House of Gucci a positive review are pointing out the performances of Gaga and Driver as the movie’s strongest elements as well as the chemistry between them, along with the humor that they (particularly Gaga) bring to their performances. Here’s what some of the positive reviews for House of Gucci have said:
“Lady Gaga's performance as Patrizia is by far one of the best things about House of Gucci, ridiculous enough without going over the top. She really commits to an Italian accent more than most and, when the time calls for it, her portrayal can be simultaneously devastating and funny.”
“Lady Gaga sinks her teeth wholeheartedly into Patrizia’s world, subtly registering her climb into the center of the action. With a thick accent that could be mistaken for Russian but actually is pure Patrizia, Gaga proves A Star Is Born was just a warmup and completely resists any inclination to turn this woman into a caricature. [...] Driver, who most recently worked with Scott so effectively in The Last Duel, is utterly credible as a man sucked into this web of deceit and power grabbing but doing it his own underhanded way. Considering we are just months away from the 50th anniversary of The Godfather, it is fascinating to see Pacino, vintage Pacino, take on a role in another Italian saga that could be a distant cousin of the Corleones. He’s terrific.”
“The pop music royalty proves her Oscar-nominated turn in A Star is Born was no fluke, disappearing into the showy, commanding personality of Patrizia Reggiani. Already Gaga’s vibrant portrayal has birthed 100 memes on social media, but that cheapens the full-bodied woman Patrizia is under Gaga’s guidance: a tempest of lust, vanity, greed and jealousy.”
Lady Gaga started her career in the entertainment industry as a singer and songwriter, but she has been shifting to acting in recent years, and every one of her performances so far has been met with praise, most notably her role as The Countess in American Horror Story: Hotel and Ally Maine in A Star is Born. It’s not that surprising, then, that all eyes are on her in House of Gucci and that her performance has been pointed out as one of the movie’s biggest strengths (even if her accent has received all types of reactions). However, critics aren’t on board with the tone of the story, Ridley’s direction, the performances of some of the actors, and the screenplay, and found that the story that the trailers presented was a lot more fun and intriguing than the actual product. Here’s what some of the negative House of Gucci reviews have to say:
“Screenwriters Becky Johnston (“Seven Years in Tibet”) and Roberto Bentivegna, working from the book by Sara Gay Forden, somehow turn couture, wealth and murder into something quite plodding. Even as they take liberties with the timeline — Maurizio and Patrizia married in 1972; they had two daughters, not one — there’s not all that much narrative drive.”
THR:
“Scott seems oddly unsure of himself here, not helped by the clunky dialogue of Becky Johnston and Roberto Bentivegna’s pedestrian script. Nor possibly by the challenges of shooting a decades-spanning, globe-trotting ensemble drama during a pandemic. Even less so by a cast with little cohesion but no shortage of scenery chompers."
“The serious discussion sits uneasy with the lavish soap-opera tone, and nobody seems to be acting in the same movie. When Lady Gaga isn't around to dominate proceedings, the movie drags and you notice the flaws more. [...] It's not that there isn't drama to be found there; it's just that it doesn't prove to be anywhere near as compelling as what could have been. Lady Gaga does her best to force you to engage with the movie, yet her efforts can only go so far.”
“There are also a lot of bizarre one-liners, from a script that’s the movie’s weakest asset. (These, of course, sound silliest in Leto’s cartoon pizzaiolo accent.) But rather than submit to going over the top, Scott keeps the filmmaking on a relatively even keel, balancing out the excesses of both the characters and the cast. The director’s overkill is mostly auditory: He dots the film with blindingly obvious ’80s needle drops and works in odd, incongruous sound effects—at one point, a scene of Gaga crying is soundtracked by cats yowling in the background."
Based merely on the critics’ reactions to House of Gucci, it all points at it not living up to its potential and what the trailers promised and being a strange mix of accents and very different performances that for some work and to others they all feel like they are acting in different movies – but the difference seems to lie in each viewer’s perspective, as some see all things Gucci as campy and over-the-top, thus expecting a soap opera-like movie, while others expected a more sober, perhaps even more elegant tone that would fit better with the crime part of the story.