SPOILERS DOWN THE PATH; THE DISCUSSION BELOW WILL NOT BE COMPREHENSIVE WITHOUT IT.
TREAD CAREFULLY. YOU'VE BEEN WARNED.
House of Gucci is a wild roller-coaster ride telling us what approximately happened behind the scenes of one of the most elite fashion brands in the world - Gucci. And it all comes down to letting one wrong person into the family. Lady Gaga plays Patrizia, a middle-class working woman who tries her every way to secure herself into the Gucci family. You'll have to see to believe what events lead to the absence of any Gucci family member in the Gucci business that we know today.
The main hurdle for this film is it doesn't have a main character you could empathize with. House of Gucci makes us realize how hard it is to let the audiences slip into the shoes of negative protagonists and wanting them to win even though we know they are wrong. And the primary reason to that is Patrizia is established as a bad person from the start. We are not shown the justification as to why she needs or deserves what she wants. There's definitely a smooth handover of the main character baton from Patrizia to Maurizio in the latter half, but this Adam Driver's character metamorphoses a little too abruptly.
Otherwise, the screenplay is engaging from start to finish. First lunch meeting with future father-in-law, humiliation in front of friends, counterfeit Gucci products detection, tax claim fraud, Paolo's (Jared Leto) attempt for his own line of clothing and the entire betray drama that follows suit, murder pursuit, divorce messenger and message, Aldo's (Al Pacino) reaction to everything that happens after he's out of jail, fake Christmas presents exchange plus the banter-filled discourse between Al Pacino's and Jeremy Irons' characters are nothing but amazing.
All the performances and accents are outstanding, although one wishes the transition from the native language to English could have utilized the Bryan Singer's 'Vakyrie' method. Speaking of performances, sometimes you could not help but feel the director should have had some of the flamboyance in leashes. When it comes to veteran masters like Ridley Scott, there's nothing you could pick apart in the technical departments. Production design, ranging from the era-specific cars, costumes and set pieces are immaculate. His yet again collaboration with Dariusz Wolski yields a lush yet grounded picturesque photography! Precise film editing helps the smooth flow of runtime. Prosthetics and makeup work are 98% perfection! There's a seamless and surprising transition that connects the successor protagonist in the beginning and the end of the film which goes hand-in-hand with the similar state of the character at both conjectures - brilliant!