Not that it mattered much. No amount of tinkering could repair the film's tonal inconsistencies. A comedy specialist stepping into semi-dramatic territory, director Ruben Fleischer scored a modest hit with 2009's giddy, satirical "Zombieland" (he is currently filming a sequel), and delivered plenty of laughs on TV, directing segments of HBO's "Funny or Die Presents" and working with Jimmy Kimmel, Zach Galifianakis, Michael Cera and Will Ferrell, among others.
In "Gangster Squad," however, Fleischer seems out of his element. His film has the familiar look and feel of a gangster classic, with plenty of dark, burnished hardwoods, shiny vintage cars and meticulous attention to period details of costume, architecture and interior design. Cinematographer Dion Beebe, who earned an Oscar for his work on "Memoirs of a Geisha" (and was nominated for "Chicago"), bathes "Gangster Squad" in a rich palette of smoky shadows and dazzling night-life opulence. Yet for all the production's post-war gloss and moody atmosphere, you still get the sense that Fleischer is barely suppressing an urge to spoof the genre.
It's late 1949, and as the holidays approach, former-boxer-turned-Chicago-mobster Mickey Cohen (Sean Penn) has expanded Meyer Lansky's Jewish mafia to Los Angeles, where's he's planning to monopolize drugs and gambling and squeeze his bosses out of the equation. He means business, too: As the movie opens, Cohen sends a message to Chicago by chaining one of Lansky's soldiers between two revving sedans and pulling him apart like a bloody croissant.
Early on, there's still hope that "Gangster Squad" might at least aspire to the crackling volatility of "L.A. Confidential," the brash brutality of "Mulholland Falls," the verbal and visual eloquence of "Miller's Crossing" or the classy opulence of Barry Levinson's "Bugsy" (partially set in nearly the the same place and time, and featuring Harvey Keitel as Cohen). That's just wishful thinking. If anything, "Gangster Squad" is an "Untouchables" wanna-be, as Irish LAPD sergeant John O'Mara (Josh Brolin) is given carte blanche orders by incorruptible LAPD Chief Parker (Nick Nolte) to recruit an off-the-books squad of crimefighters to topple Cohen's empire without the benefit of a David Mamet screenplay.
It's all good fun at first, even when it's obvious that each of these stock characters is introduced with a single attribute that shallowly defines them for the rest of the movie. O'Mara is a no-nonsense strategist with a punishing right hook and a supportive, pregnant wife (Mireille Enos, from AMC's "The Killing") waiting for him at home. Sgt. Jerry Wooters (Ryan Gosling) is a ladies' man who's reluctant to get involved until he meets Cohen's red-dressed moll Grace (Emma Stone), who wonders "where've you been all my miserable life?" –- a line Stone nearly chokes on as her chemistry with Gosling in "Crazy Stupid Love" curdles into lukewarm mush.
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