Skip to Content

House of Gucci (2021) Blu-ray Movie Review

House of Gucci (2021) Blu-ray Movie Review

Normally a movie called the House of Gucci would not interest me in the slightest. I personally could care less about fashion and knew little about Gucci. I didn’t have all that much interest in learning about the brand either. While I had no interest in the fashion side of the movie, I was still intrigued by the film. Any regular reader of Geeky Hobbies will know that I am a sucker for a good “true story” movie. House of Gucci is an interesting and entertaining “true story” film that kind of overstays its welcome at times.

The House of Gucci tells the story of the fashion brand Gucci from around the 1970s until the mid 1990s. Gucci had been a family held business for decades. When Patrizia Reggiani an outsider of more humble beginnings marries into the Gucci family, the family business begins to fracture. Various members of the family had differing visions for the company leading to conflict as different members of the family began to fight for control of the business.

Heading into watching House of Gucci I didn’t know what to think. I had no interest in the fashion side of the movie as I have no interest in Gucci at all. Despite this I actually enjoyed the movie quite a bit. While the movie does focus on the fashion elements at times, I would say that it is more about the struggle for control over the Gucci business. I found this element of the movie to actually be quite compelling at times. In a way the movie feels like a period piece from the 1980s and 1990s. I really didn’t have any knowledge about the events that took place in this movie so that may have played a part as knowing how it would end may have adversely impacted my enjoyment. While it has some hiccups from time to time, I genuinely wanted to see how the film would end.

I think a lot of this was due to the acting in the film which was generally really good. There was some criticism of some of the actors’ Italian accents which I can understand and family members/friends thought some of the performances were not true to real life. These are valid criticisms and I don’t know enough about the real life people to know if the portrayals were accurate. I do think the acting was generally really good though. The acting is easily one of the film’s greatest strengths.

As for how true House of Gucci is to the real events, I would say that it appears to generally be pretty good with the facts. The major parts of the film are accurate to what happened as there doesn’t appear to be any significant changes or additions that didn’t happen in real life. The movie does tweak the timing of certain events and streamlines the story in some areas in order to compress the story into a more digestible movie. This is typical for every true life movie since if movies didn’t do this they would be considerably longer and more boring. The main complaints about the film’s accuracy seem to come from the portrayals of some of the people as certain elements of their personalities were overemphasized which lead to a distorted view. While the movie is not perfect in the accuracy department, it is honestly better than a lot of movies that claim to have been based off of true stories.

By far the biggest issue that I had with House of Gucci is just the fact that it is too long. I don’t mind longer movies if they utilize the time well. Unfortunately this is not exactly the case for House of Gucci. The movie is two hours and 38 minutes long which is quite long for a movie. While I found most of the movie to be pretty compelling, I have to say that the length hurt it. Especially towards the later parts of the movie it tended to drag at times. Parts of the movie could have been trimmed down or cut out entirely and they wouldn’t have adversely impacted the movie. I think at least fifteen or more minutes could have been cut out and it wouldn’t have impacted the story in any significant way.

The other thing that might be an issue for some people is that House of Gucci is one of those movies where there really aren’t any people to root for. The movie is about a family of rich people and you could make a good argument that none of them are particularly likeable people. This is based on the movie’s portrayals of the people so they may have been better in real life. This isn’t a huge problem as the story itself was pretty compelling, but I generally like when a movie has at least one character to root for rather than various degrees of characters that I don’t like. If you aren’t the type of person that likes movies filled with anti-heroes, I don’t know if House of Gucci is going to be for you.

Before wrapping up lets quickly talk about the special features. The Blu-ray features the following special features:

  • The Rise of the House of Gucci: Making Of (10:14) – A behind the scenes look at the making of House of Gucci. Talks about the various characters, actors, and other elements of the story.
  • The Lady of the House (5:35) – A detailed look at Patrizia Reggiani and Lady Gaga’s performance in the role.
  • Styling House of Gucci (5:26) – A feature about the wardrobe and set design.

For the most part the special features are what you would expect from this type of movie. There are three special features which mostly go behind the scenes of how the movie was made. Those who are interested in how the film was made will likely enjoy them quite a bit. They go into quite a bit of detail about how the characters, costumes, and sets were designed. I learned some things while watching them. I personally have never been a huge fan of behind the scenes special features and I would say that there is nothing about the special features in House of Gucci that make them a must watch. If you don’t generally watch a movie’s special features, I don’t think the special features of House of Gucci will change that.

In theory a movie about a fashion company like Gucci wouldn’t interest me at all. I have no interest in fashion and have never or will ever own anything made by Gucci. Despite this I actually found the movie to be pretty engaging. While fashion plays a role in the movie, I would say that it is more about the struggle of the various Gucci members to take control of the family business. This create a pretty compelling story especially when you factor in the great acting performances. The movie is the type where none of the main characters are particularly likeable, but the story was interesting enough where I wanted to see how it would end. The movie’s biggest issue is just that it is quite long. The movie is two hours and 38 minutes long which is too long. If the runtime was trimmed down some I think it would have benefited the overall film.

If you don’t generally care for the movie’s premise or “based on a true story” movies, I don’t think House of Gucci will be for you. If you are intrigued by the premise though, at least a little, I think you will enjoy House of Gucci and should consider checking it out.

Buy House of Gucci online: Blu-ray + DVD + Digital, Digital, DVD. Any purchases made through these links (including other products) help keep Geeky Hobbies running. Thank you for your support.

We at Geeky Hobbies would like to thank MGM and Universal Pictures Home Entertainment for the review copy of House of Gucci used for this review. Other than receiving a free copy of the Blu-ray to review, we at Geeky Hobbies received no other compensation for this review. Receiving the review copy for free had no impact on the content of this review or the final score.