The Outfit (2022)

Score: 4.5 / 5

Easily the most beautiful and underspoken crime thriller in recent memory, The Outfit was one of those sneaky movies that flitted in and out of select cinemas early in 2022, right around awards season when nobody pays much attention to new releases. It's a crying shame, because as director Graham Moore's debut (he had previously written the screenplay for The Imitation Game, for which he won the Oscar), it's one of the most suave, confident, and brilliant debuts I've seen in a while. And in a genre that almost never rewards first-timers in any capacity. This film is about as twisty and polished as any war-era thriller, and the sort of "whodunnit" aspect is endlessly unpredictable, and yet it could easily be produced as a theatrical experience that would be no less riveting.

In Chicago in the '50s, Leonard Burling (a typically stunning Mark Rylance) lords over his bespoke outfitting shop for men. Originally hailing from Savile Row, he moved to the States after WWII; he firmly claims his identity as a "cutter" multiple times during the film, maintaining his stiff upper lip throughout. During one scene, he mentions the Blitz being only part of the reason he left; the other was blue jeans, the manufactured workaday stuff pumped out in assembly that could be made and purchased cheaply. His life seems sewn up, so to speak, in his trade and shop, and his pace of life seems slow and rather dull, despite his obvious passion and fascination with habiliments. His warm, wooden-and-leather parlor (the production design is extraordinary here) can be at once changed into a sort of operating room, with a large cutting table dead center and tools and fabrics of various sorts carefully arranged all around.

Burling's formidable poker face belies other secrets, though, than some dark tragedy from his past, and over the course of the film -- and numerous theatrical encounters with various personae -- we will learn exactly what's going on behind his personal façade and the façade of his shop. Several gangsters will grace his door over the course of the evening, ones belonging almost exclusively to the violent and dangerous Boyle family, including characters played by Dylan O'Brien and Johnny Flynn and patriarch mob boss Simon Russell Beale. They seem to offer him some protection and business, but they also use his store as a front for secret messages, meetings, and even a drop location for various associates. Burling doesn't get involved in the crime, as he is dutifully attempting to keep a calm and healthy atmosphere for his assistant Mable (Zoey Deutch), but the pair see and hear far more than they should and have made respective plans accordingly. Nobody is without motive, insight, or dangerous information.

I don't want to spoil anything else, because the joys of this film are manifold but hinge on the increasing unpredictability of its plot. Each new encounter had my head reeling, whether it involved romantic revelations, financial hardships and debts, or details about a rival crime family looming on the fringes of the Boyle dynasty. All in all, it's an incredibly rich film, made with I expect a modest budget that primarily went to its cast, but that leaves you with an impression of something epic having taken place. For a chamber piece of crime thrills -- a phrase I've never used and don't expect to use again -- it's astonishing and beautiful and will likely haunt me for some time to come.