Gangster Squad

In postwar Los Angeles, New York-born Jewish gangster Mickey Cohen (Sean Penn) looks to solidify his grip over the city’s underworld. His ruthless methods lead police chief Bill Parker (Nick Nolte) to retaliate with some ruthlessness of his own. Parker tabs World War II vet Sgt. John O’Mara (Josh Brolin) to recruit an off-the-books squad to take Cohen down. Among the recruits are knife expert Coleman Harris (Anthony Mackie), gunslinger Max Kennard (Robert Patrick) and his protégé Navidad (Michael Pena), and surveillance man Con Keeler (Giovanni Ribisi). O’Mara’s friend and fellow veteran Jerry Wooters (Ryan Gosling) joins the mix later, but he brings a complication: he’s involved with Cohen’s moll Grace Farraday (Emma Stone).

I wanted to like this movie. I really did. James Ellroy’s L.A. Confidential is one of my favorite books and movies and L.A. Noire is one of my favorite video games. Combine that creatively fertile Los Angeles gangster milieu with an A-list cast, and Gangster Squad should have been a sure thing. Instead, the lackluster results are almost as much of a crime as anything you see on the screen.

Comedy director Ruben Fleischer makes for an easy scapegoat, but from a technical standpoint, he doesn’t disappoint. His cinematic L.A. is both ritzy and sordid, and it’s loaded with convincing period detail. While the film is quite violent, Fleischer avoids Tarantinoesque overkill and gives us some fairly suspenseful shootouts and car chases.

No, the real culprit here is Will Beal’s screenplay. Like The Untouchables, this film is ahistorical and overly simplified, but it lacks the former’s class. Most of the characters here are one-dimensional and thinly developed, the opening and closing narration is laughably bad, and the ending is downright inane (if also predictable). Such formulaic fluff might be acceptable for a network TV show, but it’s utterly disappointing to see in a big-budget movie.

Given the constraints, the cast at least tries. Penn in particular imbues Cohen with seemingly limitless ambition, avarice, and savagery. Kudos also go to Gosling, who is able to change from frivolous playboy to deadly avenger in the blink of an eye. Brolin comes across as wooden in the lead role though, and Stone’s talents are egregiously wasted.

On its own merits, Gangster Squad is watchable and occasionally even entertaining. But it’s a mere shadow of what it could have been.

7/10