House of Gucci

 

  The House of Adlibs and bad accents.

House of Gucci has a lot in common with Ridley Scott's other film, All the Money in the World. In these two films, I have come to the conclusion that when it comes to crime drama, Ridley just doesn't have it. With the Alien franchise pretty much gone and unattractive sword and sandal flicks, Scott really has nowhere left to go but the crime drama. Something that his younger brother Tony Scott did a much better job. 

This film is a run-of-the-mill, cliche story about greed and power, which heavily relies more on the cliche than the source material of this true story.

A film's runtime is irrelevant when taking note of the pacing. There are very short 2 hr. and 30-minute movies and very long 1hr and 40-minute ones. House of Gucci is an over 2hr drag; Scott doesn't use his time well.

However, Scott can't take all the credit for the bad pacing. Majority of that goes to the bad accents that bring a detrimental distraction to the flow of the movie. Also, the obvious adlibs don't do anyone any favors. Was the script that bad? I was constantly dejected from this less than interesting true story.

There's a lot of time jumping in House of Gucci, but the look of the film never evolves from its dry opening act.

The performances range from outrageous to professional. All but Adam Driver and Pacino fall into the outrageous slot; they're the only two consistent performances. And Pacino delivers an impactful moment near the final act.

House of Gucci is not a campy or wild film. It's just bad, and the fault goes behind the camera. Scott wanted to make this true story more interesting than it was and for that, he had no sense of where this movie was going. All the Money in the World was a decent crime drama. He should have stopped there.