We round up the reviews for Ridley Scott’s film examining the story of Patrizia Reggiani and the murder of Maurizio Gucci.
The Guardian: **** “Ridley Scott’s fantastically rackety, messy soap opera about the fall of the house of Gucci is rescued from pure silliness by Lady Gaga’s glorious performance as Patrizia Reggiani, the enraged ex-wife of Maurizio Gucci, grandson of the fashion-house founder Guccio Gucci. She singlehandedly delivers the movie from any issues about Italianface casting: only she can get away with speaking English with the comedy foreign-a accent-a.”
Digital Spy: ** “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.”
Variety: “You may ask: Who are we identifying with in “House of Gucci”? For a while it’s Patrizia; then it’s Maurizio. But this is a movie in which the driving force of our engagement is really the shifting spectacle of power. That, I suspect, is why some may find the movie wanting. If you’re looking for overripe kitschy malevolence, you won’t find it, and if you’re looking for a hero to connect to, you won’t totally find that either. But if you get onto the film’s wavelength, the pageant of dynastic corporate war is mesmerizing.”
rogerebert.com: ** 1/2 “But these visuals are just a special-effects of sorts, elements that keep “House of Gucci” on its feet when the film trips on its overlong train elsewhere. You come to it for a sophisticated boutique experience, but what you walk out of feels awfully close to an overstuffed department store.”
Vulture.com: “Maybe that’s why Gaga’s character fades from view for a while, as though the movie loses its resolve, unable to bridge the endearing outsider and the murderess. But she represents the most interesting, if half-explored, idea that House of Gucci has to offer, because once she’s allowed into the hallowed halls of the Gucci clan, she buys into the myths of exclusivity and aristocracy more than Maurizio — who scoffs about his grandfather being a bellhop — ever did.”
Evening Standard: ***** “House of Gucci is well-paced and tonally consistent. Smart, funny and camp, it’s not interested in keeping a straight face, strutting its way to glory. This is all fizz and no faff.”
The Times: * “This howlingly inept biopic, probably his worst film since The Counsellor, has several moments of such knuckle-chewing awfulness that the entire movie seems to lurch into wonky self-parody and could possibly secure a lucrative box-office future as a laugh-a-long camp classic in the vein of Showgirls or The Room.”
Empire: *** “Despite the story’s operatic sweep, despite its undeniably Shakespearean entanglements, it feels oddly undramatic, the filmmaking itself quite detached. And certainly, despite all the catastrophe, you won’t be shedding tears over anybody, but maybe that’s the point? It’s a case-study of a business gone amok, and while you don’t truly get to know any of these people as actual human beings, you probably wouldn’t want to.”
The Telegraph: *** “Ridley Scott’s crime drama feels like a soap opera with airs, but its star’s sheer chutzpah ensures it’s never less than watchably raucous.”
House of Gucci is released in cinemas on the 26th November.