Here we have a pretty useful cast in a kind of gangster film, graphic novel mash up (think Gotham meets The Untouchables) that promises much yet probably fails to deliver. It is inspired by real characters in 1940s Los Angeles. We find ourselves in the dark underworld of Micky Cohen's (Sean Penn) power grab, and an “honest cop”, John O'Mara is charged with heading up a crack “Gangster Squad” that can use any means necessary to sabotage Micky's empire.
The crew itself is fantastically diverse for the genre – square-jawed guy, pretty guy, Mexican guy, black guy, old guy and brainy guy. If you are wondering where the women are, then you can rest at ease in the knowledge that square-jawed guy's (Josh Brolin) wife hand picked the team from the police files. This, unfortunately highlights one of the problems we had, in that it represented a missed opportunity. In this world of tommy-guns and flicked cigarettes, there was little finesse at work in their dealings with the mob. This was even pointed out to O'Mara by pretty guy (Ryan Gosling) at one point which could have led nicely to said wife taking on a bit of an operational role in the group, so that it wasn't all headless-chicken kind of policing/sabotaging.
The film looked great, with a clean, crisp comic book feel to set and costume, but was shot largely in dark locations. While this highlighted the seediness and the dark nature of violent crime, it also led to little recognition of characters during hectic shoot-em-up scenes and detracted from the stylised aesthetic. Darkness does not go well together with mumbling either, no matter how tough it makes your protagonists seem.
Sean Penn was up to his usual high standard, but probably lacked a little subtelty and nuance in his back story to truly come off as one of the great villains. Ryan Gosling was very watchable, as was Emma Stone, but they weren't allowed to develop or influence proceedings, which was disappointing.
Overall, other than a couple of half-hearted attempts to provide moral ambiguity, particularly through brainy guy (Giovanni Ribisi) wondering what the difference is between themselves and the bad guys, this film was very black and white and too generic. Fraser believes that truly compelling gangster pictures stand or fall on the force of personality of the protagonists. Unfortunately, this one can not hold up its head alongside the other great gangster films in our collection.
Does it make it into the cupboard? No
Our next post will be up on Tuesday 5th of January around 3 pm Swedish time.
Our next post will be up on Tuesday 5th of January around 3 pm Swedish time.
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