YMMV / House of Gucci

• Award Snub: Lady Gaga received nominations for every major award (Golden Globes, BAFTAs, Critics Choice Awards, Screen Actors Guild Awards) considered to be precursors to the Academy Awards, but was not nominated at the Oscars. Also considering the subject matter, it wasn't up for Best Costume Design, which even the film's most adamant detractors have admitted was deserving of recognition.
• Awesome Music: The trailer's music is a melodic version of "Heart of Glass" by Blondie.
• Base-Breaking Character:
  • Paolo, with the main split being whether or not you find his exceptionally hammy portrayal entertaining or annoying.
  • Patrizia is either seen as an exciting Villain Protagonist, or a one note and over the top baddie.
• Broken Base: Amongst detractors, there's an odd split on whether or not the film suffers from being too campy or not campy enough, really depending on whether you prefer the subtle scenes and characters or the over the top ones.
• Fetish Retardant: Patrizia and Maurizio's sex scene early in the movie was this to some viewers, who found it awkward and uncomfortable.
• Ham and Cheese: For better or worse, this film is serving up quite a bit of ham.
  • In a movie with its fair share of overacting, Jared Leto manages to be more over the top than every other actor in the movie combined.
  • Not one to be outdone in this department, Al Pacino delivers yet another loud turn.
  • Lady Gaga is as dramatic as her stage persona would have you think, especially in the third act.
• Narm: Paolo's freakout towards Patrizia and Maurizio. Jared Leto's incredibly hammy performance is transferred with no change from comedic scenes to a dramatic one, and the transition results in some rather awkward scenery chewing.
• Questionable Casting:
  • A case similar to Ridley Scott's previous films Prometheus and (before the infamous reshoots) All the Money in the World. Though the transformational makeup used on Jared Leto was praised, several people asked why they didn't just hire a plainer, older, heavier actor who wouldn't require such extensive work done on them to play the part of Paolo. This was actually the subject of a minor controversy, with some railing against Leto being one in a long line of attractive actors who have stolen the part of an unattractive character from actors who actually look homely. Depending on who you ask, his actual performance either makes up for this or makes it all even worse, with the divide being whether or not his scenery chewing is hilarious and engaging or baffling and annoying. Reflecting this, Leto was nominated for a SAG Award and won a Razzie for his performance.
  • Another involves how Scott chose to cast American actors (with only a couple even being of Italian descent) instead of actual Italians to play the Gucci family, with particular criticism going towards the many over the top and inaccurate accents. Lady Gaga and Jared Leto were especially criticized over this, with many saying the former's accent doesn't even sound Italian whilst the latter's was deemed so over the top it was frequently compared to Super Mario. Jeremy Irons meanwhile has received both praise and criticism for his practically nonexistent attempt at an accent, with the latter reaction claiming it's distracting and out of place while the former group noted that it came across better than the incredibly over the top efforts of his cast members.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character:
  • Maurizio may be Patrizia's co-lead, but he's clearly given the short end of the stick when it comes to development, with little to tell us why he does what he does outside of her influence. Especially bad when he leaves her then we don't even see what drives him when it comes to all of his later actions. The fact that Maurizio is considered to be a very interesting historical figure only makes this worse, as does him being played by Adam Driver, with the widely acclaimed actor not having all that much to work with.
  • It's often agreed that Rodolfo's relationship with his son truly shapes Maurizio into who he was and played a role in his many questionable actions. Unfortunately, since we only see a bit of these two together, the dynamic is far from fleshed out, negatively impacting both Maurizio's role and the unfortunately small part of Rodolfo.
  • Some have noted it feels like Pina's role was lost in editing. We never actually see her meet Patrizia in person before suddenly they've become close to each other. She then spends the rest of the film only infrequently popping up in small scenes before out of nowhere she puts the assassination plot into play. And even then, she still stays a minor, undeveloped role.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot: The movie ends quickly after the murder of Maurizio (which is also shot in a very famous part of Rome trying unsuccessfully to pretend it's Milan), excizing one of the most interesting and sometimes bizarre parts of the story, which included how Patrizia got caught and how she was offered a way out of prison early but refused stating "I never worked a day in my life and I'm certainly not going to start now!"
• Uncertain Audience: The film has been critiqued for an inconsistent tone. At times the film is over the top and campy (usually when Paolo is on screen), jarring with its more serious scenes and some actors such as Adam Driver, Jeremy Irons and Jack Huston feeling like they were directed to act as though they were in a serious drama while others like Jared Leto and Al Pacino were instructed to ham it up as though it were a tongue in cheek comedy.
• Visual Effects of Awesome: Thanks to extensive prosthetic makeup, Jared Leto is barely recognizable as Paolo Gucci, even if he looks pretty much nothing like the real Paolo Gucci.

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