House of Gucci is directed by Ridley Scott and stars Lady Gaga as Patrizia Reggiani an Italian woman who falls for and marries Maurizio Gucci (Adam Driver) and becomes part of the famous Gucci fashion designer family despite Maurizios father (Jeremy Irons) disapproving of her feeling she is nothing more than a gold digger though Maurizio’s uncle (Al Pacino) and nephew (Jared Leto) do approve of her.
House of Gucci is a weird movie to watch because it should feel like a tonal mess with so many silly Italian accents that border on cartoonish and one performance that feels like its in a totally different film to everyone else yet Ridley Scott manages somehow to make this work and I enjoyed myself watching it even though this feels more like the Ridley Scott that made American Gangster and All the Money in the World.
And like those films this one strips back a lot of Ridley’s visual touches and he makes a much more straightforward drama and this one held my interest enough that I liked the film though a lot of this comes down to the cast and firstly Lady Gaga is a bonafide movie star, she has these beautiful magnetic eyes, the camera loves her and for the most part she is very good in the film as she navigates Patrizia’s descent into paranoia and madness as the years of being married to a Gucci go on though at times her Italian accent gets a little wobbly.
As for Jeremy Irons and Al Pacino again they are cartoonish but they are fun cartoonish for the most part, Irons feels like he is playing a borderline spoof of his Oscar winning role in 1990’s Reversal of Fortune where he played Klaus Von Bulow and though he doesn’t do much of an Italian accent seeing him in fancy suits and big houses made me think of that earlier role he did, Al Pacino meanwhile is not one for being subtle much of the time but it feels like he’s gone up only to about 10 on the Pacinometer as opposed to his usual TWELVE OR FIFTEEN WHERE HE ALMOST YELLS EVEYR OTHER LINE HE SPEAKS JUST LIKE THESE ALL CAPS WORDING.
But then there is Jared Leto and dear oh dear if you honestly thought Pacino could be over the top and silly and cartoonish Leto in this movie is all three and then some, his accent is so laughable It borders on being at one time Super Mario and then Joe Dolce, Smeg someone may as well have handed him a guitar so he could start singing “Ah Shaddaup You Face” its that bad and unlike Ben Affleck in the Last Duel who also gave a campy performance managed to do it in a way that worked Leto just goes full on and its funny but in not in a laugh with them kind of a way its much more of a laugh a at you kind of way.
Then there is Adam Driver who somehow manages to make his straight laced performance work despite the cartoonishness going on around him and at times it does feel like he is giving a performance from a completely different film but then when the focus of the film turns to him in the second half of the film it actually begins to work and you see how this whole world looks from his eyes.
And so that was House of Gucci and its all over the place and its performances for the most part border on parody but I liked it enough to give it a recommendation, 3 out of 5.
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