The Outfit: Mark Rylance is note perfect in a tailor-made gangster film, more bespoke than violent
By Karen Gordon
Rating: B-minus
The Outfit is a gangland suspense thriller set in a ‘50’s era Chicago tailor’s shop, with a shifting narrative aimed at making us question what we think we know about the characters. It’s ambitious, but not as much fun as it wants to be.
Mark Rylance is Leonard Burling, the owner of the tailor shop where the film is set. He has one employee, the ebullient Mable (Zoey Deutch), who is kind of a daughter figure.
Leonard is a trim, quiet man-of-few-words Brit. Once a Savile Row tailor, or “cutter” as he prefers, he relocated to Chicago and set up shop. He makes beautiful bespoke suits for his clientele who, we learn, are mostly underworld criminals, and in particular, members of the Boyle crime family.
Zoey Deutch and Mark Rylance are tailors for the Chicago mob in The Outfit.
They trust him. We know this because every day two members of the Boyle family drift in and out of his shop, and deposit envelopes in a wooden mail-box in Leonard’s work room in the back. It’s so routine that Leonard doesn’t even look up from his work table.
The two men, are the next generation of the gang: Richie Boyle (Dylan O'Brien), the handsome son of the head of the patriarch Roy Boyle (Simon Russell Beale) and Francis (Johnny Flynn), a young tough guy.
Francis has contempt for Richie, whom he sees as spoiled and entitled. Plus, he’s taken bullets for Roy, and talks a big game, trying to convince everyone that he’s the favoured son and heir. Francis is also convinced there’s a snitch in the Boyle family, and his constant harping on it irritates Richie.
To add to the tension, things are moving and shaking in the Chicago underworld. A violent turf war is brewing between the Boyles and the rival Lafayette Gang. The FBI is watching it all. And it appears that someone at the FBI is also a snitch, passing on key information on to Francis and Richie’s mail box.
The two young men are impulsive, and their antipathy towards each other sets off a series of problems that changes the course of everyone’s lives.
Characters rotate in and out of the three rooms that make up Leonard’s tailor shop, as they obfuscate, lie, or try to figure out the truth. We, the audience, see some of what is hidden, but even still, as the film unfolds, we’re also a little in the dark about certain characters and their motives.
It’s a clever idea. And first time director Graham Moore, almost pulls it off. Moore, who co-wrote the film with Johnathan McClain, won an Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay for The Imitation Game.
The script seems to hit all the right notes, but there are problems with the execution. There were times, for instance, when I stopped to question whether a twist or new bit of information made sense relative to what had come before. In a film that relies on forward motion, and challenging our perceptions, those things weigh the film down.
There are some terrific performances here. In particular, Rylance is, as always, note perfect as the ’cutter’ who may or may not be who he says he is. Also fun to watch is British stage legend Beale, who plays the head of the Boyle gang.
As well the film’s design team has done a fantastic job of evoking an era and a mood. The action is set in Leonard’s shop, a neat and quiet three rooms, with polished wood, and a wall of beautiful wool-suiting fabrics. In the back room, is Leonard’s work table and a large pair of scissors to cut patterns and fabrics he takes impeccable care of.
It makes for an evocative setting, and the idea of confining the action to a tailor shop is clever, allowing for the story to focus on the chess game, rather than the violence.
Interestingly, the script has a lot of nice beats to it. With its small cast and single location setting, The Outfit sometimes comes off like a movie that wants to be a stage play.
In the end the problems are with the direction, with the inconsistent tone, which robs the film of some of its vitality.
The Outfit, directed by Graham Moore, written by Graham Moore and John McCain, starring Mark Rylance, Zoey Deutch, Dylan O’Brien, Johnny Flynn, Simon Russell Beale. In theatres, March 18.