Tom Ford compares watching 'House of Gucci' to surviving a hurricane: 'It was hard for me to see the humor and camp'

• Tom Ford compared his experience of watching "House of Gucci" to surviving a hurricane.
• The fashion designer and filmmaker's tenure at Gucci is briefly portrayed in the film.

The fashion designer and filmmaker Tom Ford said he believes Ridley Scott's "House of Gucci" will be a hit with audiences despite comparing his experience of watching the film to surviving a hurricane.

Ford — who was the rising creative director of Gucci in the 1990s when Maurizio Gucci was shot and killed in a hit job ordered by his estranged wife Patrizia and is portrayed by Reeve Carney in the film — penned an essay in response to the movie for Air Mail.

In the essay, the designer praised the movie's "impeccable costumes, stunning sets, and beautiful cinematography," as well as Lady Gaga and Adam Driver's performances, but questioned the construction and quality of the film's narrative comparing it to a television soap opera.

"The movie rivals the nighttime soap 'Dynasty' for subtlety but does so with a much bigger budget," Ford quipped. "Directed by master filmmaker Ridley Scott and starring Lady Gaga, Adam Driver, Al Pacino, Jeremy Irons, Jared Leto, and Salma Hayek, the film is … well, I'm still not quite sure what it is exactly, but somehow I felt as though I had lived through a hurricane when I left the theater."

He added: "I often laughed out loud, but was I supposed to?"

Later in the essay, Ford compares parts of the film, particularly the performances of Al Pacino as ex-Gucci boss Aldo Gucci and his eccentric son Paolo Gucci portrayed by Jared Leto to a "'Saturday Night Live' version" of the Gucci tale.

"Both performers are given license to be absolute hams—and not of the prosciutto variety," Ford wrote of Leto and Pacino.

Ford continued to zero in on the quality of Leto's performance and said the actor's work was "literally buried under latex prosthetics."

"Paolo, whom I met on several occasions, was indeed eccentric and did some wacky things, but his overall demeanor was certainly not like the crazed and seemingly mentally challenged character of Leto's performance," Ford wrote.

In the film, Leto plays a balding and overweight Paolo Gucci.

Concluding his comprehensive survey, Ford said he was "deeply sad for several days after watching House of Gucci," a reaction he said, "only those of us who knew the players and the play will feel."

"It was hard for me to see the humor and camp in something that was so bloody. In real life, none of it was camp. It was at times absurd, but ultimately it was tragic," he wrote. "But with Gaga's and Driver's strong performances, powerful over-the-top portrayals by the entire cast, impeccable costumes, stunning sets, and beautiful cinematography, the film, I suspect, will be a hit. Splash the Gucci name across things and they usually sell."