"The Outfit" a crackling slow-cooker

The Outfit (2022)

Taking place entirely in a tailor’s shop, "The Outfit" feels like a drawing-room play with a pot of water boiling the whole time. While a single location can sometimes be death on film and come across as airless, it works here for this kind of powder-keg story. Author Graham Moore (who adapted his book "The Imitation Game" for the Benedict Cumberbatch-starrer of the same name) makes his writing-directing debut, and he decidedly shows a lot of skill in ratcheting up tension and claustrophobia in mostly one room for one long night. It’s a little like Hitchcock’s “Rope” in that way, but with more sharp objects. 

Set in Chicago, 1956, the film establishes the small day-to-day operation at a tailor shop, L. Burling. Formerly working on London’s Savile Row, English master tailor/cutter Leonard Burling (Mark Rylance) runs the joint, with assistance from secretary Mable (Zoey Deutch). Gentlemen customers willing to pay for Leonard’s high-end suits come into the shop all day, and the majority of them are gangsters who bring their own business with them. Late one night, that business gets out of hand. While there’s a whole mob firestorm going on outside, Richie (Dylan O’Brien), the arrogant son of mob boss Roy Boyle (Simon Russell Beale), and right-hand man Francis (Johnny Flynn) come knocking in the middle of the night. One of the wise guys has been shot, and they need Leonard to fix him up. Things go sideways, of course, with a briefcase and a crime syndicate known as The Outfit, created by Al Capone. Who’s the rat among them, and who allowed the feds to plant a bug? Read the rest of the review at Phindie here.

Grade: B

Focus Features is releasing “The Outfit” (105 min.) in theaters on March 18, 2022.