Eight years after winning an Oscar for the screenplay for “The Imitation Game,” Graham Moore also debuted as a director. And this surprisingly good, somewhat old-fashioned, minimalist and theatrical crime story, which takes place in a tailor’s shop in Chicago in 1956. While, say, Branagh’s new, expensive, blockbuster adaptations of Agatha Christie’s whodonite crime were completely worn out and devoid of any originality and imagination, Moore showed that even this somewhat archaic genre can breathe some freshness. Although “The Outfit” isn’t really a classic whodunit, Moore co-wrote a clever screenplay full of surprises with not-too-famous actor Jonathan McClain, and this story worked really well, although at first it seemed like it could be just another in a series of similar unimaginative crime.
The great Mark Rylance is tailor Leonard Burling who opened his shop in Chicago after leaving London during World War II. He is a mysterious and silent guy in his sixties who has obviously gone through everything and anything, and absolutely everyone comes to his tailoring shop for elegant suits. This tailor doesn’t bother much with other people’s business, and his work is used by a local Irish gangster organization as a safe location for his dirty money. But one night, the wounded son of the head of the Irish gang, Ritchie Doyle (Dylan O’Brien), in the company of his father’s bodyguard Francis (Johnny Flynn), breaks into a tailor’s shop. The Doyle clashed with rival LaFontaine gang, and Irish criminals decided to take refuge in Leonardo’s shop.
Under the threat of weapons, Leonard will have to help the mobsters in trouble, and it will turn into one of those long nights full of surprises and upheavals. It turns out that the FBI could be involved in the whole story, there is also Leonard’s young treasurer Mabel (Zoey Deutch) who is in a relationship with Ritchie, and we will learn that the term “Outfit” is not just about choosing clothes to wear. , is already the name of the all-American criminal organization that should accept the Doyle family as full members and thus give them a decisive advantage in the fight for supremacy in Chicago. There seems to be a “mole” in Doyle’s organization, and “The Outfit” proved to be more than a pleasant surprise, as a bit of an old-fashioned but cleverly designed crime story full of unexpected twists and turns that aren’t forced. Rating 7.5 / 10.
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