The Herald - The Herald Magazine
A sharp 1950s-set thriller and Dumbledore is back
Damon Smith reviews the latest new releases to watch in the cinema
THE OUTFIT (15)
THE first cut is the deepest in Graham Moore’s handsomely tailored thriller but the other 227 steps, which transform 38 pieces of cotton, silk, mohair and wool into a two-piece suit, are just as meticulous and elegant.
Set almost entirely in four interconnected rooms of a bespoke men’s atelier in 1950s Chicago, this bruising battle of wills feels like it must have begun life as a suspenseful stage play.
In fact, The Outfit is an original work of bullet-riddled fiction fashioned by co-writers Johnathan McClain and Moore, the latter making an impressive directorial debut several years after he collected an Academy Award for his screenplay to The Imitation Game.
Alan Turing would have cracked the coded conversations between characters before a final act of steadily spiralling tension fuelled by the incendiary lead performance of chameleonic fellow Oscar winner Mark Rylance.
“You cannot make something good until you understand who you’re making it for,” quietly explains his Savile Row-trained craftsman in an opening voiceover that revels in the painstaking precision of handmade couture. Heeding those words, the script doesn’t take us for fools, holding our attention in a chokehold with emotionally charged interrogations that venerate the art of coolly saying one thing when you mean something else.
Mild-mannered widower Leonard Burling (Rylance) is a master craftsman with a pair of shears, who creates impeccable garments for the tough-talking men of 1956 Chicago.
He runs a shop, L Burling Bespoke, with chatterbox receptionist Mable (Zoey Deutch), who dreams of travelling the world.
In the back room of Leonard’s inauspicious premises is a lockbox used by associates of the mob headed by Roy Boyle (Simon Russell Beale). Leonard turns a blind eye to visits from Roy’s son Richie (Dylan O’Brien) and right-hand man Francis (Johnny Flynn) to collect brown paper envelopes stuffed with cash.
“If we only let angels be customers, soon we’d have no customers at all,” he quietly reminds Mable. When a mysterious organisation called The Outfit tips off Boyle about a mole in his organisation, Leonard and Mable are unwittingly drawn into the hunt for a traitor.
Sharp words are traded as Boyle demands a swift resolution before his fierce rival Violet LaFontaine (Nikki Amuka-Bird) can take advantage of gangland loyalties strained by suspicion.
The Outfit is constructed almost as artfully as one of Leonard’s suits, using bone-crunching violence as last resort when menacing words fail to draw blood. Rylance is masterful as an unassuming pawn in a deadly game of strategy and subterfuge, gelling splendidly with Deutch’s dreamer and Flynn’s hot-headed thug. The shop feels increasingly claustrophobic as Moore tightens the thumb screws and ambushes our expectations.
“Perfection is impossible,” suggests Leonard. He’s right – there are wrinkles in the film’s finishing touches – but, for a first feature, The Outfit certainly makes the cut.
8/10
FANTASTIC BEASTS: THE SECRETS OF DUMBLEDORE (12A)
The wizarding world created by JK Rowling expands with the third chapter of the Fantastic Beasts series, which replaces Johnny Depp with Mads Mikkelsen as the diabolical antagonist.
Albus Dumbledore (Jude Law), professor of Defence Against The Dark Arts at Hogwarts, implores trusted magizoologist Newt Scamander (Eddie Redmayne) to embark on a perilous mission to thwart dark wizard Gellert Grindelwald (Mikkelsen) and his ever-growing legion of followers.
Dumbledore has remained on the sidelines as war approaches but the fate of the magical world hangs in the balance and all wizards and witches must declare their allegiances. Meanwhile, Dumbledore’s disturbed brother Aurelius (Ezra Miller) hones his talents under Grindelwald and Newt’s brother Theseus (Callum Turner) continues to bear the scars of losing his fiancee Leta Lestrange to the conflict. 7/10
COMPARTMENT NO 6 (15)
An exhausting long-distance train journey to northern Russia provides the backdrop to burgeoning romance in Finnish director Juho Kuosmanen’s tender drama, based on Rosa Liksom’s novel of the same title.
Finnish archaeology student
Laura (Seidi Haarla) is persuaded by her lecturer and lover to travel to Murmansk to view ancient petroglyphs as part of her education.
She boards a train and is shocked to discover that she will be sharing her carriage with a foul-mouthed, misogynistic skinhead called Ljoha (Yuriy Borisov). He is travelling to Murmansk to work down a mine and readily soaks his macho facade with alcohol. A chance encounter between polar opposites in carriage number six kindles an attraction as Laura and Ljoha get to know each other and let their guards down.
Laura learns that her travelling companion is actually a shy and sensitive boy, who yearns for meaningful human connection just as deeply as her.