Last time, in the Almost There series, I asked you to vote on what performance should be explored next. Mike Faist in West Side Story was the resounding victor. However, since Spielberg's musical is still not available to stream or rent, we'll first look at the runner-up choice from that poll. She's none other than Lady Gaga in House of Gucci. After scoring nominations with all major precursors, she seemed set for her second acting Oscar nod. However, as luck would have it, her outrageous awards campaign ended in a snub from the Academy. She might still win some trophies before the season is over, but that coveted little golden man is out of reach.
While it's easy to lose oneself in the glamour of the role and those ridiculous interviews, there's plenty to admire in Gaga's star turn as Patrizia Reggiani, ex-wife to Maurizio Gucci, who she had killed after an acrimonious separation…
"It was a name that sounded so sweet, so seductive. Synonymous with wealth, style, power." – one of the most glaring failings of the performance slaps you right in the face during the movie's opening. Introducing us into Gucci's world of obscene luxury through Lady Gaga's narration isn't a wrong decision on Ridley Scott's part, especially when one considers the tonalities she builds with the words. There's a sense of conspiratorial confidences, a secret shared between equals in warm whispers. Her ability to create an intimate connection with the audience is a testament to raw star power, but even such qualities can't hide the technical missteps.
The accent is justly infamous, sounding like a messy negotiation of pseudo-Italian and American consonants, while all the vowels tumble towards a muted New York pronunciation. Nevertheless, there's evident care to capture Reggiani's vocal specificities, how accents can reveal class origins and illustrate class aspirations, so one can't reasonably criticize Lady Gaga for lack of effort. Her few fully Italian phrases ring a more authentic cadence than the marble-mouthed English. Nevertheless, the result makes Patrizia sound like a Russian mafia seductress out of some culturally-reductive SNL sketch.
It's not enough to entirely sabotage the performance, but it's still a hindrance. What's most frustrating about this state of affairs is that one can glimpse the light of a powerhouse star turn happening beneath the shadows of vocal pitfalls. The line-readings aren't necessarily bad despite the accent, which makes the whole artistic decision on Scott's part even more head-scratching. If you're not going to do this story in Italian, as it should be, at least surrender to Hollywood artifice and have the actors talk with their natural voices. It'd be less distracting than the inconsistent compromise that ended up on the screen.
Beyond her Italian accent by way of Moscow (very Miss Fame doing Donatella), Lady Gaga shines best when playing Patrizia within the confines of an uncertain romance. Before it becomes a true-crime drama of dubious taste, House of Gucci devotes significant attention to the courting of its central couple, how there's genuine affection there, desire, passion, mutual infatuation. As the young Patrizia, Lady Gaga walks a fine line between embodying seductiveness while allowing a mercenary's glint to manifest, the hints of a dark future. The first meeting with Maurizio at a costume party is a perfect example. The actress plays up the innocence of awkward flirting, but her boldest gesture is reserved for a flash of lust. Not for the man. For his name.
An ambiguity of intention is difficult to portray, especially when delivering a piece of maximalist acting as florid as this one. And yet, Gaga manages to hold two possible truths at the same level, regardless of their antithetical natures. In her hands, Patrizia is attracted to Maurizio for who he is, the person, the body, and what he represents. Her pull towards him is both honest and underhanded, a consequence of the heart's desire as well as the calculated move of a social climber. Maybe it's the earnestness that Lady Gaga brings to every role. Perhaps it's the sheer intensity of sentiment that bullies the audience into believing Patrizia's contradictions without batting an eye. Whatever the case may be, it works.
In the movie, Lady Gaga is directly compared to Elizabeth Taylor, and the similarity goes deeper than just surface appearance. Even without those Oscar-nominated brunette locks, the performance is reminiscent of Taylor's performances in films like Raintree County and Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. There's unrefined broadness to how both performers confront the role. Every pose and expression exploded into a supernova of excess. It often stumbles into naïve camp, but it's impossible to take one's eyes away from the star shining on the screen. She's magnetic, especially when a scene demands she recede into the background or sacrifice chaos for stillness.
For all her undisciplined bravado, Gaga is quite excellent when reacting to her fellow actors, punctuating their choices with a silent movie siren's electric expressivity. It all depends on her scene partner, though. With Jared Leto, Gaga almost seems small by comparison, still fun to watch but also more illuminating as far as characterization goes. Irons flattens the diva into her meekest register, while Hayek leads to Joan Crawford-esque unraveling. Al Pacino is her best companion, though, beckoning the leading lady into a performance of Machiavellian theater, full of self-satisfied smirks and seething anger. As a general note, the bigger her castmates go, the more Gaga's Patrizia feels at home within House of Gucci.
The problem arises from the fact that her scenes tend to be shared with Adam Driver. Simply put, they don't gel as costars beyond the first loving chapters of the story. When the Gucci's marriage goes to ruin, Patrizia's despair comes to the forefront, and their dynamic loses balance. Furthermore, Scott's direction does nothing to frame them as polarizing forces existing in the same dramatic wavelength, making Driver look bullishly minor key and Gaga like an overacting machine spinning out of control. Inspired meme-able moments aside, this is where she risks becoming an unintentional parody of serious acting, a funhouse mirror reflection of Oscar-hungry prestige. Intellectually, there is value in how false and forced this Patrizia Regianni feels, though.
Gaga's creation makes the woman into a lie so intensely told that you reach a point where truth doesn't matter anymore, only the hyper-untruth of Hollywood artifice. That doesn't mean it's terrible, but it sure verges on laughable. All in all, even if I wouldn't have nominated Lady Gaga for an Oscar, I respect her performance and wish contemporary cinema had more of her brand of blind charisma married to tragic sincerity and an innate sense of drama. She's a one-woman opera buffa, an absurd spectacle that earns applause despite its many failings.
Relative to pandemic numbers, House of Gucci's box office was substantial. Indeed, it's one of the biggest non-franchise successes of last year, which, once upon a time, might have guaranteed a triumphant award run. It seemed like that was its fate for most of the season, especially when it came to Lady Gaga's Best Actress bid. The movie overperformed at SAG, making Gaga a double nominee, both in her individual category and as part of House of Gucci's ensemble cast. At BAFTA, she was the only likely Oscar contender to score a coveted Best Actress nomination, which, thanks to current rules, meant she was among the voting body's top two choices.
Add to that Globe and Critics Choice nominations, and Lady Gaga felt like the surest thing going into Oscar nomination morning. But of course, this has been a chaotic season as far as Best Actress is concerned, culminating in the pop star's absence from the Academy's final lineup. Instead, AMPAS chose Jessica Chastain in The Eyes of Tammy Faye, Olivia Colman in The Lost Daughter, Penélope Cruz in Parallel Mothers, Nicole Kidman in Being the Ricardos, and Kristen Stewart in Spencer. It's hard to say which of them was in fifth place and ended up overthrowing Lady Gaga's apparent lock. However, since Stewart's movie got no other nomination, she seems like the logical answer. Do you agree, or was there another more vulnerable nominee on the ballot?
You can rent House of Gucci on Apple iTunes, Cineplex, Microsoft Store, ILLICO, Amazon Video, Google Play, and Youtube.