Directed By Graham Moore

Starring – Mark Rylance, Zoey Deutch, Dylan O’ Brien

The Plot – Leonard (Rylance), a master English tailor who’s ended up in Chicago, operates a corner tailor shop with his assistant (Deutch) where he makes beautiful clothes for the only people around who can afford them: a family of vicious gangsters. One night, two killers (O’Brien, Johnny Flynn) knock on his door in need of a favor, And Leonard is thrust onto the board in a deadly game of deception and murder.

Rated R for some bloody violence, and adult language throughout

(1) THE OUTFIT – Official Trailer – Only in Theaters March 18 – YouTube

POSITIVES

Deviating from a genre of films that have otherwise stalled the subgenre with a combination of by-the-numbers formula and oversaturation of violence, “The Outfit” instead stitches together something freshly invigorating for its corresponding concepts, serving as a directorial debut for Moore, who won Oscar acclaim for his screenplay for 2014’s “The Imitation Game”. For starters, Moore’s decision to craft the entirety of the story in a singular setting, complete with thread-tight framing and stuffy atmospheric resonation, attains all of the palpable tension and claustrophobic emphasis that seems to constantly allude to combustible elements about to explode at any given moment. What’s most impressive, however, is Moore’s desire to keep violence spared for the moments they matter the most, instead crafting his superbly rich and evocative dialogue as a thunderstorm of sentiments that grows all the more fierce with each passing moment, attaining with them a balance of tonal plausibility’s along the way that solidify the depth that Moore invests in such vast world-building and ensuing characterization. For such, levity in the form of humor plays a big part in keeping the occasion fun above all else, where the various punchlines and consistencies in tempo appraise a naturalistic value that never feels forced for the occasion, nor condemning for the majority of the anxious atmospheric establishing. However, make no mistake about it; when this film is at its best is when Moore drives each scene to the edge of a riveting climax, tying more than a noticeable reflection to the structure of Hitchcockian drama, complete with exchanging secrets and elevating stakes that the audience are constantly ahead of, thanks in whole to Leonard being the one link that ties each of these dynamics together. Our accessible knowledge doesn’t hinder any of the effectiveness of the various twists and turns throughout, instead conveying this impending doom that we see coming from miles away, made special by the occasional deviation or macguffin that doesn’t allow it to materialize in ways we were previously expecting. It takes a simplistic formula, and evolves it with many corresponding dynamics that constantly shift and deconstruct, blazing anything other than a conventional path on the way to the many tense altercations that spring from deceit serving as the ideal antagonist to anyone she comes across. Speaking of characters, the work from this cast is glowing, especially in the duo of Rylance and Deutch, who evolve with a range of emotional dexterity that obscures the line of compassion in their original interpretations. For Deutch, it’s the cold, compassion-less stare that she constantly elicits that is one of her more defining characteristics, especially in the way it burns a hole into her opposition with raging intensity of the most enthralling volume. Rylance again steals the show, but this time exuding more of the sophistication and articulacy of a protagonist in Leonard that he uses as a weapon to off-set the reality of the way people perceive him, before giving way to something far more flawed and compelling by film’s end.

NEGATIVES

The first act of the film is one of the most challenging that I have experienced in a movie I’ve loved in quite sometime. This is not only because the initial minutes begin as a testing slow-burner of the most routinely establishing kind, but it also contains none of the compelling synergy that made the rest of the film such an intriguing sit. There’s nothing necessarily that I would trim, but the overhead narration tying the mafia crime world metaphorically to that of suit-cutting becomes slightly overused and deviating from the attention of the story that takes its time unraveling before catching our attention. If you make it through the first twenty minutes, the rest of the film is great, I promise. In addition to this, while the twists and reveals are mostly satisfying in where they take the narrative and characters involved in such, the disposal of them feels a bit too convoluted with respect to where they materialize in the film. Considering a majority of these are delivered in the third act, there’s little time for each of them to properly resonate in a way where audiences can mentally maintain the stakes, before another one comes along. It becomes slightly tedious, and even a bit unnecessary when the ending tacks on an additional confrontation that it doesn’t actually require, feeling like a tacked-on afterthought that removes enough of the built up motivation from a thunderous climax that feels noticeable.

OVERALL

As a debut feature film, Moore tailors “The Outfit” with enough tense directing and compelling webs of Hitchcockian twists and corresponding deceit weaved throughout to constantly keep audiences comfortable with what it stitches together. Though the abundance of twists occasionally muddle the execution, the measurements of Rylance and Deutch simply can’t be understated, crafting a near perfect fit with just enough room in its design to breathe.

My Grade: 8/10 or B+