The Outfit is such a neatly packaged film, one expects it to come gift-wrapped with a tasteful garnish. It is set in Chicago of 1956 and tells the story of an English tailor, sorry “cutter,” (the film makes a big deal out of this distinction) who gets in the middle of a mob war.
Set reel-to-reel entirely in a menswear shop somewhere in the [elevation] [directional] [portion] of the Windy City, The Outfit introduces us to Leonard (Mark Rylance), an import so English that all the men in the film call him “English.” First, however, the film wanted to introduce his work as the methodical creator of classy tailored suits. There are 228 steps in making a suit; I know because the film told me there were. Luckily, it only covered the first two specifically. The Outfit knows you didn’t come to see a guy make a suit, but it had to establish the level of professionalism, the exactness of precision, and the unappreciated difficulty of such a task. These will all come in handy when the mobsters show up.
Leonard employs Mable (Zoey Deutch), who exists probably so Leonard can care for something other than his suits. The back room of the shop is where the work gets done … and it also houses a dropbox for mob payoffs. These are handled by the son of the big boss, Richie (Dylan O’Brien), and his handler, mob enforcer Francis (Johnny Flynn). Richie and Johnny lead lives that get complicated when a message in their dropbox has come from The Outfit, a national organization of mobsters. So far, the organizartion that employs Richie and Johnny is small time, but how would you boys like to play in the bigs?
Oh, and there’s a complication, because of course there is. There’s a rat among the small-timers. And The Outfit knows. And The Outfit … wants to help (?) so that the small timers can join in the clear (?) I hope this makes sense to mobsters; I got a little lost. Another complication is that Mable is dating Richie, which seems like a bad idea for several reasons. So, the local mob has got their hooks into this gentleman’s
shop … what’s Leonards role? What’s Leonard’s play?
And this is what The Outfit is about … exactly how does “English” –merely a creator of menswear- fit in with the mob? With the leak? With the would-be gangster gal? [Hey, there’s a mole and a moll!] With The Outfit? With a rival mob (and I’m guessing clothier as well) down the block? Say, wouldn’t it be funny if the rival mob had a really bad tailor? It would be an easy way to tell one from the other, amIright? That’s a different film.
The Outfit is a clever film. It needs us to know exactly how clever because it’s compensating for a lack of sets. The problem with clever psychological studies is same from Hamlet to Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure: Can you really anticipate what any human will do given a certain set of circumstances? I think it becomes even dicier when the human is a professional killer by trade. What stops Richie or Francis or boss man or any random mobster from killing Leonard the tailor at any time and thus ending our movie experience? The answer is in the question – ending our movie experience. That’s not enough to convince me everything that happened here was a given. But none of that took a great deal away from my enjoyment of the film, merely from my ability to consider it as a great one.
A tailor gets involved with The Mob
Which seems an overwhelming prob
You can call him a nutter
But if he insists on “cutter”
He might just be ideal for the job
Rated R, 105 Minutes
Director: Graham Moore
Writer: Johnathan McClain, Graham Moore
Genre: Mob-fu
Type of being most likely to enjoy this film: Your grandfather
Type of being least likely to enjoy this film: People who enjoy more than one set
