(Spoilers – spoilers everywhere; abandon every hope, ye who enter here)

When Patrizia Reggiani, an outsider from unfortunate conditions, marries into the Gucci family, her uncontrolled ambition begins to shred the family tradition and sets in motion a wild spiral of treachery, extravagance, retribution, and eventually, murder. With movie and pop star Lady Gaga, and movie star Adam Driver, this movie captures the ups and downs of the Gucci fashion company, along with a perspective of what it was like to be an actual Gucci family member at the time. This wealthy family saga has twists and turns that represent the filthily authentic Gucci family in the 90s that are practically predictable from the beginning. This rollercoaster of a film shows Patrizia as a family loving peacemaker in the beginning, but then becomes a power hungry control freak. The manipulation by Patrizia was easily foreseeable and predictable due to the ads running for the movie. With humor and drama, this 2021 movie provides a dragging plot that will make you wonder when it’s over.

The character development of Patrizia and Maurizio Gucci transformed drastically from the beginning of the film. Maurizio Gucci, studying to become a lawyer, wanted nothing to do with the Gucci company, and wanted the only thing associating him to the company was his name. Rodolfo Gucci, Maurizio’s father, became sick and passed, leaving Maurizio with the company. With his inheritance of a global wealthy fashion company, Maurizio became very professional and his comforting smile in the beginning of the film, began to fade the more the movie went on. Maurizio’s character’s transformation was authentic and brilliant due to the subtle yet noticeable change over time. However, for Patrizia, she transforms from being bubbly and humbled to a greedy woman that begins to put the Gucci company before Maurizio’s own family. With this, she begins to attempt to form alliances throughout the Gucci family, creating tension. When Maurizio, aggravated, tells Patrizia to leave the company for him to control, she gets upset since she feels that Maurizio can’t run the company by himself and will make ignorant business decisions. By Maurizio telling Patrizia to back down from Gucci, she not only feels the power slipping away from her fingers, but her marriage as well. Maurizio and Patrizia’s relationship suffers due to an explosive argument about the company, leading to tension and emotions flying all over the place. Maurizio begins to distance himself from Patrizia, as she does the opposite, trying to resolve the tension.
Although the plot was intriguing and meant to keep you on the edge of your seat, Lady Gaga’s acting was adequate and didn’t convey the story arc how it was supposed to. Lady Gaga’s acting was tolerable and appropriate, but led me to wondering when the movie would be over. Mid movie, I began to wonder when it was going to be over. I did take into consideration that this movie was about 3 hours long, but then realized it was Lady Gaga’s acting that was dragging it on. I felt like Gaga’s accent was too thick, and was obviously fake. The role of Patrizia is meant to be dramatic, but I felt that Gaga over did it.

Unless you enjoy mediocre acting and long movies, I would personally wait until this film is on streaming platforms.