Review: The Outfit

Directed by: Graham Moore

Written by: Graham Moore & Johnathan McClain

Starring: Mark Rylance, Zoey Deutch, Johnny Flynn, Dylan O’Brien, Nikki Amuka-Bird

Rating: [3/5]

Everyone has a past and moments they don’t necessarily divulge to everyone for good reason. It makes sense to keep some things under the vest to pull out when necessary. The events that transpire in The Outfit certainly define an event where whatever rabbits lie in the hat get utilized as every twist and turn flips the table and changes the dynamics involved. Without a doubt a fun time, but perhaps this film employed one too many twists. 

Owning a custom tailoring shop in Chicago, Leonard (Mark Rylance) allows the mob family of Roy Boyle (Simon Russell Beale) to utilize a lockbox in the back for cash and to hold key messages. One evening, two members of the Boyle gang, Francis (Johnny Flynn) and Roy’s own son, Richie (Dylan O’Brien), abruptly show up to Leonard’s shop, as Richie has been shot. Francis makes it clear that Leonard needs to patch up Richie and must also maintain discretion or else. 

A good old chamber thriller has the stated goal of delivering twists as everything on the surface gives a certain amount of information, and by the end, everything from the beginning looks unrecognizable. A chamber thriller such as this one also employs a single location as it encloses these characters in close quarters where certain advantages benefit particular players in this little game. The stakes immediately spike in this story given the life-and-death circumstances but also in the way Francis and Richie make it clear that there’s a rat within the crime family, and the recording they intercepted sitting in their suitcase has the answers they look for. 

Imagining how a docile old man like Lenoard has found himself in this situation receives an answer very quickly to remove any ambiguity. Leonard acknowledges not everyone he does business with is an angel and will not pretend to have a moral high ground. He sees his work as objectively as possible, and it certainly does not hurt that the Boyle family frequents and patronizes his shop. He has plenty of reasons monetarily and for life preservation to look the other way and allow them to conduct their business without raising a fuss. However, this evening changes things, given he now has direct involvement in whatever is going to transpire this evening, and he must play his cards right if he wants to survive the night. 

As this terrible night progresses, the players involved continue to increase, further complicating the situation. While it initially involved Francis and Richie, somehow Leonard’s employee, Mable (Zoey Deutch), gets dragged into this mess. Leonard now needs to manage this situation not just for his survival but also for Mable’s, and considering Francis has an itchy trigger finger waiting to go off, he needs to play his cards right. The way Leonard navigates this situation and the twists that transpire begins to raise questions of his character and what he did prior to owning this shop, a particular skill and cunning he displays throughout this film. 

For as much fun as this film presents with all of its twists and turns, there is such a thing as one too many. It started to get comical at just how many twists occurred in this film where once you got an idea of where it would go and the direction of the narrative, things would flip again. Certainly an entertaining and expected component of a film like this one, but after a while it got a bit too ridiculous. This especially occurs at the very end where, just as you would think the film finally ends, the narrative tries to get you one last time, where it more so elicits an eye roll than any real appreciation for it. 

Despite the one too many twists, The Outfit presents an easily enjoyable film that allows Mark Rylance to portray a meek little old man with plenty he hides underneath the surface. The film maintains a strong tension throughout, as one bad move can lead to one errant bullet going towards one of the characters. It navigates the general restrictions of this type of film quite well with some strong dialogue filled with tension as everything within the production culminates in something quite entertaining.