The Outfit (2022) Dir. Graham Moore

First-time director Graham Moore pulls together an excellent ensemble cast for his new drama set in 1956, which sees an English "cutter" (NOT a tailor as the character clarifies) getting involved in shady mob rivalries in Chicago.

A brilliant, as always, Mark Rylance stars as Leonard Burling who runs a clothing shop used to hide tainted mob money which he is reluctant to do so, but provides him both customers and safety in a dicey neighbourhood. This is complicated with his receptionist Mable (Zoey Deutch) dating one of the mobsters but she wishes for a better life outside the violent city.

Late one night, Francis (the mob boss’ chief hoodlum played by Johnny Flynn) arrives with fellow gang member Richie (Dylan O'Brien) who has been shot and Leonard is asked to sew him up. The evening evolves with characters led to believe they are being double-crossed as they try to avoid the FBI. Whilst the location of a secret recording, the identity of a possible informant and the hiding of a body are played out with the mobsters increasingly distrusting of each other.

The plot gets complicated but the director and editor do well with the explanations in the script and structure, and these twisty machinations create satisfying intrigue and mystery. And Rylance’s mild-mannered Englishman moves from innocent bystander to engaged protagonist, giving the movie higher stakes as it pushes forward.

Yet as the threads of the story entwine, it’s clear Rylance is tailor-made to deliver the countenance of a calm man enlisted into crooked crime but he adds a darkness that hints upon a past far less savoury than it initially seems (or seams?)

The film’s support cast is suit-ably menacing as well and their quick-fire dialogue again clarifies the gangster’s shifting treachery.

Set entirely in the shop itself, the film’s location gives off the air of a tightly constructed stage play which isn’t particularly cinematic BUT adds claustrophobia and suspense where needed, as we are forced to barrel along to the film’s bloody climax.

At a swift 106 minutes, The Outfit is a nimble and cut-above-average mob movie set amongst the fabric of organised crime, gruesome murder and diverging deceptions. And with Rylance’s mesmerising central performance as a man with a cryptic past, he adds suitable sophistication and gravitas to a criminal chamber-piece with enough stylistic flourishes to fit nicely in the gangster genre.

★★★½☆

Michael Sales