Comparisons to The Godfather<\/em> (1972) are apt \u2014 and apt to annoy overly fastidious cinephiles who have taken them purely as a measure of the film\u2019s quality. Instead, House of Gucci<\/em> follows the Francis Ford Coppola classic\u2019s basic arc of a son brought into the family business who then finds success as he loses his good character. Basically, Adam Driver\u2019s Maurizio Gucci is Michael Corleone, but with even better hair and a worse wife. Casting Al Pacino in a supporting role cannot be a coincidence, and I applaud Scott for this giant nudge in the ribs of the audience.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Based on Sara Gay Forden\u2019s nonfiction book of the same name, House of Gucci<\/em> spans three tumultuous decades of style, scandal, and strife in the Italian fashion dynasty. In the late \u201870s, reluctant fashion scion Maurizio Gucci meets crafty middle-class girl Patrizia Reggiani (Lady Gaga) at a costume party, where she can\u2019t believe her luck. She emerges truly smitten with the sweet, unassuming heir who\u2019s studying to be a lawyer, but she\u2019s also attracted to his famous name. After a romantic courtship (including a ridiculous sex scene in a construction office that brings to mind a jackhammer), Maurizio goes against the wishes of his father, Rodolfo Gucci (Jeremy Irons), and marries Patrizia. She wants familial reconciliation (purely for her husband\u2019s sake, of course) and finds it in Maurizio\u2019s uncle, Aldo (Pacino). Aldo is the more hands-on of the elder Guccis, and he doesn\u2019t trust that his bumbling son, Paolo (Jared Leto), will be able to manage the company on his own. Maurizio \u2014 and especially Patrizia \u2014 gain power at the brand, as they consolidate power. Late-night TV viewing leads Patrizia to connect with dial-a-psychic Pina (Hayek), who becomes her literal partner in crime as she scrambles to keep her place within Gucci. <\/p>\n\n\n\n In a turn sure to be as iconic as the brand\u2019s horsebit loafers, Gaga goes for broke as the scheming Patrizia. It\u2019s a performance as big as her character\u2019s \u201880s hair, teased to the brink, and just as ratty. Could the accent be more, umm, Italian? Sure. But vocal verisimilitude aside, this is a captivating turn that earns her equal footing with her co-stars, who rank among cinema\u2019s best acting talents of the past and right now. <\/p>\n\n\n\n If Gaga\u2019s performance is at a 10, Leto is somewhere in the triple digits. The usually gorgeous actor is unrecognizable as the balding, age spot-speckled Paolo, who is often pathetic but rarely sympathetic as the Gucci son who has the desire \u2014 but not the talent \u2014 to evolve the fashion line into a modern powerhouse. He\u2019s in an entirely different, even sillier film than the rest of the cast, and while his performance doesn\u2019t fully work within the context of the film, he\u2019s still super watchable and is the source for some of the bigger laughs here, often at the expense of either Paolo or the actor himself. It\u2019s jaw-dropping but mesmerizing in its goofiness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Driver rarely gets to smile as much as he does here, particularly in the film\u2019s first act where he\u2019s playing the innocent entranced by Gaga\u2019s Patrizia. It\u2019s not as showy of a role as his co-stars, but Maurizio does evolve the most over the film\u2019s two-and-a-half hours, with a marked difference between the grinning law student at its beginning and the Machiavellian businessman at the end. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Beyond all the performances, House of Gucci<\/em> is stitched together more by craft than by the messy script from Becky Johnston and Roberto Bentivegna. Credit goes to Letizia Santucci\u2019s sets and Janty Yates\u2019 costumes for building this decadent world to perfection. For the soundtrack, era-appropriate (if obvious) disco and pop alternate with overly familiar opera tracks that even those who groan at the genre\u2019s appearance as a Jeopardy! <\/em>category will recognize. These are not deep cuts. But the musical choices point to the epic, over-the-top nature of the story; House of Gucci <\/em>is the A-list equivalent of a soap opera, full of betrayals, affairs, and schemes. <\/p>\n\n\n\n It\u2019s all delightfully silly, but it\u2019s interesting to consider in conversation with Scott\u2019s film released just a few months earlier: The Last Duel<\/em><\/a>, a 14th-century set film full of shifting perspectives and a grimy, grisly brawl. Despite surface differences (and a wide gap in quality), House of Gucci<\/em> is not a total thematic departure for the director (and could anything be at this point, given Scott\u2019s wide-ranging filmography?). Both films deal with how men underestimate women and their intelligence \u2014 often at their peril \u2014 as well as how power (or lack thereof) changes people, but one is actually a good film. <\/p>\n\n\n\n House of Gucci<\/em> has the sheen of its award-winning director and cast, but in reality, it\u2019s more of a greasy slick sitting on top of the film than evidence of real gold. This is far from Scott\u2019s best movie, but it still is highly watchable in its melding of high-class pedigree with delicious trash.\u00a0 “House of Gucci” is in theaters Wednesday.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/crookedmarquee.com\/stage8\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/gucci2-1024x768.jpg\")
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