A perfect fit
GANGSTER FILM TAILOR-MADE FOR UNDERSTATED ELEGANCE
The Outfit Cast: Mark Rylance, Zoey Deutch, Dylan O’brien, Johnny Flynn Director: Graham Moore Duration: 1 h 45 m Available: In theatres
With its poster image of a large pair of shears, several guns and a lot of welldressed, nefarious-looking people (most of them wearing hats), The Outfit looks like it might be the newest spinoff from the Kingsman series of movies.
Nothing could be farther from the truth. Where Kingsman is loud and brash and showy, The Outfit is measured (a fitting term) and circumspect. But it is nonetheless thrilling in its soft delivery.
Mark Rylance stars — in almost every frame — as Leonard Burling, an expert suit-maker, late of Savile Row, who has for some reason chosen to ply his trade far across the pond in Chicago, circa 1956. Call him a tailor at your peril, for he’ll tell you he’s a cutter before launching into a discussion of the trade. Man makes the clothes.
In the opening scenes he explains that there are 38 separate pieces, 228 individual steps and four types of fabric that go into making a suit. That might also describe the intricate nature of the film, which relies on misdirection and hidden-inplain-sight ruses to carry it to its satisfying conclusion.
Leonard has a quiet, I-just-want-to-be-left-alone demeanour as he works and sometimes even sleeps overnight in his bespoke shop, aided by his able assistant Mabel (Zoey Deutch). But early on we sense he’s made a deal with the devil, installing a dead letter box in his backroom, where local gangsters Richie and Francis (Dylan O’brien, Johnny Flynn) occasionally swing by to gather illicit information.
The sartor and the mobsters mostly ignore each other — Leonard has a way of picking up needle and thread to busy himself, fade into the background, and plausibly deny that he heard or saw anything. This while Richie, who’s the gang leader’s son, and Francis, a trusted lieutenant but not a blood relation, spar for power.
But things take a turn when the two men turn up late one night with the police on their tails. Seems they’ve got a copy of an FBI surveillance tape that everyone wants, as it will reveal elements of the gang’s operations, and also quite possibly the identity of the person who allowed it to be recorded in the first place. They’re not certain how far they can trust Leonard, but they’ve got little choice.
First-time feature director Graham Moore, who also wrote the screenplay with actor-turned-writer Johnathan Mcclain, manages to throw a lot of tricks into the mix without coming off as overly clever. Part of that is down to the writing, which is form-fitting and not at all baggy.
Take the scene where Leonard has to use the tools of his trade to stitch up Richie, who took a “marble” to the abdomen in a shootout that night. “I was in the war,” he says by way of explaining his battlefield skills. Francis shoots back: “At your age?” He replies calmly: “The other war.”
Also worth noting is that my steady diet of movies has me primed to expect the ol’ line-repeated-for-dramatic impact gambit. In The Outfit, when someone remarks “This is going to be a long night,” Leonard replies: “They usually are, sir.” I steeled myself for an unwanted echo, but it never arrived.
Add to this some stellar production design that lets the whole movie take place in Leonard’s cluttered shop without ever feeling claustrophobic. And a masterful score from Oscar winner Alexandre Desplat (The Shape of Water, The Grand Budapest Hotel) that acts like an additional character, creeping in and out of the scene, knowing when to make itself known and when to make itself scarce.
It all adds up to a wonderful tale, tied together by Rylance’s superb performance. You’re never certain whether you’ve reached the character’s final layer, or whether a loose thread will reveal something more. The Outfit is both a perfect fit and a story with alterations when you least expect them.
★★★★ ½