Pseudo-Noir ‘Gangster Squad’ Forgets the Substance

D+

To claim Gangster Squad is a pseudo-noir exercise in style over substance would suggest Ruben Fleischer’s third feature film has any substance.

Interfusing historical figures and fictional characters, the film is set in opulent 1949 Los Angeles, where Brooklyn-born and retired boxing champion Mickey Cohen (Sean Penn) has taken the City of Angels by brute force. Like all scheming mobsters in cinema, Cohen has grandiose plans for the future: running the drug cartel and gambling games, all the while paying off judges, cops and politicians.

One cop that won’t be bought off is Sgt. John O’Mara (a Purple Heeart-decorated WWII veteran played by Josh Brolin). Against the will of his fellow officers and pregnant wife, Connie (Mireille Enos), O’Mara wages war on Cohen and his dirty operation. Aiding him in this off-the-books mission are five honest colleagues: Sgt. Jerry Wooters (Ryan Gosling), officer Coleman Harris (Anthony Mackie), officer Max Kennard (Robert Patrick), officer Navidad Ramirez (Michael Pena), and office Conway Keeler (Giovanni Ribisi).

In the vein of Brian De Palma’s The Untouchables, Gangster Squad is a simplistic story—a city turned into a cesspool of corruption, greed and bloodshed, then redeemed by a group of noble officers willing to strike back against the violence. Unfortunately, neither the group’s rise against the mafia, nor Cohen’s rise to power is particularly engaging, perhaps because Gangster Squad goes through the standard conventions of the noir-crime-caper genre.  Originality, nuance and verve aren’t a part of the film’s equation. Cohen is particularly uninspiring, a walking caricature so idiotic I’d be surprised if he could solve a basic math problem, let alone the intricate inner workings of gambling wires (Cohen wants to all control all gambling west of Chicago).

On top of the cartoonish villain, freshman screenwriter Will Beal, adapting from Paul Lieberman’s book of the same title, has some fundamental issues translating this piece of literature into a feature film. Marred by dismal dialogue and a missing third act, Beal’s screenplay is exacerbated by its frustrating lack of authenticity.

Brolin and the respective actors that make up his posse do what they can. Gosling and Mackie flourish in their roles, managing to flesh out their characters in interesting ways. Emma Stone, as Cohen’s “etiquette tutor” (who falls head over heels for, you guessed it, Gosling’s character) is given a thankless part. Their relationship is emblematic of the entire film: artificial to no end. Gangster Squad is a film whose best elements are featured in its trailer: a film that is not half as fun as it should be, and above all, a film as generic and clichéd as its title would suggest.

‘Gangster Squad’ opens nationwide Jan. 11.