The Outfit
FOCUS FEATURESClosely knit thrillers and the low rumbles they can create are getting better and better. Ever the trendsetter, Ben Wheatley managed to kick things off with Free Fire and everything felt a bit expansive, a bit different, from then on. The Outfit feels like a genuine mixture of those hums of chilling desire found in Free Fire, along with a pleasant reimagining of Phantom Thread, but in place of Daniel Day-Lewis capturing a sensibility of Stockholm syndrome is Mark Rylance struggling along as a shopkeeper inevitably in over his head. That seems to be the stock taken by many of these small-scale, high violence thrillers. Why toy with something that works so well? Graham Moore, thankfully, knows not to change much at all.
Always a period piece setting, always the slow crawl of a camera moving into an isolated, one-room environment. The Outfit relies, rather expectedly, almost entirely on Rylance. Some shots, with their slower pace and wandering leading man, feel opportune. They are exceptional uses of time because Moore gives us a view of the items and areas that will surround these characters for quite some time. Seeing the tools that come into play later on with idle foreshadowing is a skill The Outfit relies on rather well. Premature it could be to enlist the help of Rylance’s narration; it comes into play fantastically well. The small touches, from Rylance discussing the necessities of detail in a suit to the observation of personality, it comes through nicely. Almost relaxing at times, and it makes for the inevitably jarring brilliance to come.
The Outfit asks the question of who people are underneath their suits and shoes because by the looks of it there are few good faces throughout. Rylance gives a superb performance as the man taking note without noticing, and the supporting performers around him are engaging, yet crucially, very fun. Zoey Deutch and Dylan O’Brien are well cast and offer good performances throughout. O’Brien may not be the most comfortable with this accent, but he looks the part in a smart suit that relays the very certainty of tailors and the troubles they can find themselves in. Iconography is crucial to the success of a film that feeds off of a cultural period, and The Outfit nails every technical merit it can get its hands on.
What else could Rylance need beyond his shears, his script and his ineffable charm? What a stunning performance, and what an extraordinarily fun feature. The Outfit has all the right tropes underscoring it. Characters that dream big and of a better, brighter future, but thanks to the great state they find themselves in, will never manage their hopeful dream. Simon Russell Beale and Johnny Flynn cannot go unmentioned here, playing their supporting roles so well audiences will very nearly forget that Flynn portrayed David Bowie in the laughably poor Stardust. Nearly. Not ever, though. Even the quality exuded throughout The Outfit will not cover that up, however great a feature it is. Rylance steals the show throughout The Outfit, and that is no surprise. What a debut for director Graham Moore.