The Outfit, set in 1956 Chicago, follows Leonard (Mark Rylance), an unassuming cutter (not a tailor – this is important), who quietly makes suits for the mobsters and professionals who frequent his shop. In the back corner of his workshop there is a mailbox, and he regularly receives visits from unsavoury characters who use this box to send and received messages out of the watchful eye of the FBI.
One night, two mobsters, Francis (Johnny Flynn) and Richie (Dylan O'Brien) come stumbling through the door. Richie, the leader of the mob's son has been shot. And the two men force Leonard to sew him up at gunpoint.
From there on, a mystery builds. Threads and strings are teased and pulled, and the person in control is never fully clear. Traitors, mysterious histories, allegiances, bodies in suitcases, tapes of secret conversations and misplaced trust are all dangled in front of us in this small, claustrophobic space.
Play-like in scope, The Outfit bears similarities to Alfred Hitchcock's Rope, the storytelling style of Agatha Christie, and more recently, the whimsical comedic nature of Rian Johnson's Knives Out. Playful piano melodies compliment even the darkest of scenes and add a fascination to Rylance's Leonard. He is perfectly cast here, as this quiet working-class Englishman who is easy to underestimate.
Directed and written by Graham Moore, best known for penning the screenplay for The Imitation Game, he is no stranger to tales of underestimated, eccentric outsiders with difficult secrets. But where The Imitation Game had to try and establish the life of Alan Turing, here we are only given a single night and what is revealed within it.
There could be some criticism that the medium of cinema is wasted on this story; it is so playlike, it almost doesn't feel like it fills the screen in any impactful way. However, Rylance is so watchable, and the story has so many twists, that actually the cropped shots and short focus lengths used add more intimacy than you could even gain on the stage.
While The Outfit may not have the cinematic impact of some of the things we'll see this year, it offers a compelling alternative. A worthy addition to the gangster genre, more critical than glorifying, with Rylance at his best.
Dazzler Media presents The Outfit on 4K Ultra HD, Blu-ray & DVD from 1st August
