Gangster Squad Review: Interrupter of Progress

Reuben Fleischer's adaptation of Paul Lieberman's Gangster Squad reminds me a little of LA Confidential in that it's set in 1950's Los Angeles, revolves around a group of LAPD detectives/cops, and has a big bad controlling Los Angeles through corruption and violence.  If LA Confidential was the brains of 1950's LA cop films, then Gangster Squad is definitely the brawns.  And that's not necessarily a bad thing, but don't expect to see anything special or new.

The film circles around Mickey Cohen (Sean Penn) as a retired world champion boxer who climbs the social and organized crime ladder with brute force.  This is evident from the moment we meet him, when he's tearing into an East Coast mobster, and I don't mean figuratively, to send a message that this is his town.  

There isn't much to Cohen's character and the way Sean Penn plays him doesn't elicit any sympathy for him, either.  He's one shade of grey, mainly due to aging, but also because he's no more than a caricature of a mobster.  This is not the rise of Michael Corleone.  This is not a love letter to John Dillinger.  It isn't even Analyze This.  You won't find any degrees of characterization like you have had in classic Mafioso films or even TV shows.  Whatever strides our Golden Age of television have made with the misunderstood mobster like Tony Soprano or Nucky Thompson are gone with Mickey Cohen's character.  He's the "interrupter of progress" and it's a shame because it could have elevated this pulp film had we understood him a little bit more, but alas this film is not about Mickey Cohen.  Never was.

The movie is about the Gangster Squad, and if that title doesn't echo Scooby Doo Gang, especially with that font, I don't know what will.  

Fuck yeah! America! Oh, wrong movie.

The Gangster Squad consist of Josh Brolin's square-jawed square of a cop, Sgt. John O'Mara, or Sarge, who like Russell Crowe's Bud White, is brutish with a soft spot for a damsel in distress.  He has a code of honor and cannot be bought.  He has a lovely wife who is with child.  He fought valiantly in World War II, distinguished with two purple hearts, and other medals for bravery and courage.  Yet, all is for naught because you just don't care about him.  He's our hero, yet he's as interesting as a brick in a brick house. 

"Yes, sir, I'll take that squad now.  No, sir, I will not smile."

Unfortunately, for these veteran actors, I don’t think there was much to work with.

When Chief Parker (Nick Nolte) recruits Sgt. O'Mara to form an off-the-books vigilante squad to bring down Mickey Cohen, O’Mara builds his team with cops that cannot be bought, those without fancy degrees or potential for promotions.  Enter the B team: Robert Patrick, Anthony Mackie, Giovanni Ribsi, and Michael Pena, who are more skill sets than actual characters, each one with a special identity, such as being the quickest draw in the West, being a knife throwing ninja, being the brains and apparently just being Mexican?   While they tend to be pretty forgettable, except for a few good lines and moments, the ensemble does work and it makes for a pretty fun ride as they go from pretty inept to straight down badass.

Whether you like the genre, this film really is about the team and their mission, reminding you of the Dirty Dozen or the Ocean’s Eleven team.  The fun comes from the camaraderie and their unified efforts.  It’s actually nice seeing the good guys kicking some ass for most of the film, having the underdogs win for a change.

The only exception to the lack of interesting characters is O’Mara’s cop buddy, Jerry Wooters (Ryan Gosling), who he initially tries to sway on board his team.  The problem is that Jerry just doesn't care anymore.  This isn't his war.  Plus, Jerry just met red hot Grace (Emma Stone), Cohen's etiquette teacher who knows her way around a steak knife and dessert spoon, and let's just say Jerry is dessert and she loves to spoon.  Gosling and Stone's chemistry again is magnetic and she is sultry and gorgeous as ever.

"I'm so method, you're not even there, Emma."  "Seriously, Ryan?"

Jerry plays the perfect foil to O’Mara in the movie, spitting out smart ass one-liners for every grunt and scowl O’Mara pans out.  I do like that they don’t force a father and son dynamic onto this relationship, which has been done to hell with cop films.  One of the things that this film does right is making them equals.  Unlike a lot of the relationships in the film, the only ones that seem to matter were the ones that Jerry usually had, whether it was with Sullivan Stapleton’s Jack Whalen or Stone’s Grace Faraday or Ribisi’s Conway Keeler.  This is because Gosling, even with his odd accent choice that sounds like Mickey Mouse (I guess the days as a Mousekateer have finally paid off), elevates the scene and the emotional connection to the characters, more than the veteran actors he shares the bill with. 

A lot of it has to do with the small acting choices he makes, like his voice or the way he flips open his lighter – you see an actor who isn’t afraid to take risks.  The irony is that as jarring as Gosling’s voice is at first, it makes you pay attention to how Gosling delivers his lines and makes you understand why Gosling is becoming one of our generation's most dynamic actor.  He pulls it off with pizzazz like everything else he does in the film. 

Going back to the film, it isn’t until Jerry sees the death of a child, one that he kind of fancies in his “beat it, kid” kind of way, that he has a change of heart and joins the Gangster Squad.   From there on, it’s a full on war to take down Cohen and his reign to regain the soul of Los Angeles

If anything, Jerry’s “call to action” is the quintessential example of how predictable this story is.  You would think this would kill a film like this, but surprisingly it survives due to a defibrillator team of editors.  I give them kudos for making the film so kinetic that one actually forgets that no character is in any actual danger during any of the action sequences.  The action sequences do provides a good amount of thrills.  I caught myself squirming at the edge of my seat a few times as the Gangster Squad crashed and burned Cohen’s empire to the ground, especially when Jerry was involved.

"Holy shit, that gun is missing everybody."

Director Reuben Fleischer does seem to have knack for the visually appealing, like Zach Snyder, and it isn’t lost in this movie.  While it’s pretty cool to see someone’s body vibrate as he shoots a Tommy Gun in slow motion, it starts to be excessive and gimmicky by the time the final shoot out happens.  The violence is definitely over the top and it earn its R-rating admirably, whether it’s with Penn’s profuse use of profanity or bullet-riddled bodies strewn across streets or brains splattered on windows.

But for all the fun you might have watching it, it doesn’t leave much of an impact, fading away by the time you exit the theater.  If you are looking for something to watch this weekend, I’d suggest catching up on your Oscar nominees instead of this - definitely a RedBox rental.