Dressed to Kill: ‘The Outfit’

Mark Rylance as Leonard Burling in 'The Outfit.'

Set in 1956, “The Outfit” (2022) is a smart-looking Chicago-based drama starring Mark Rylance as meek British cutter Leonard Burling, who has dedicated his life to crafting bespoke men’s suits. After a long tenure on London’s Savile Row, he’s set up shop in the midwestern city famous for its red hots, Wrigley Field and St. Valentine’s Day Massacre. 

The story is honeycombed with plots and subplots. This one involves a drop box in the back room of Leonard’s shop, where local mobsters deposit their earnings for pickup. Leonard’s assistant, Mabel (Zoey Deutch), is dating one of the wise guys who use the back room as their personal post office.

Things get sticky when a gang war breaks out between two opposing crime families, and there’s a surreptitiously made tape recording that both gangs and the police would like to get their mitts on. A number of deals and double crosses transpire, blood is spilled, conspiracies are discovered and perpetrators are vanquished.

The film leads us to an unexpected conclusion when yet another undiscovered plot comes to light. By then, we’ve gotten used to the idea that this is a Russian doll with secrets within secrets, so when the payoff comes we’re ready for it.

The story unfolds (lousy pun) in one space, Leonard’s shop, an old timey storefront with a cutting table, bolts of sumptuous fabrics and Leonard’s prize possession, his shears. Confined to the front of the store and the back room, the film’s staging feels a lot like a play. Characters make speeches, and conversations lack the spontaneity and ring of authenticity we expect in crime films. F-bombs sprinkled into the dialog are meant to blemish the gentile atmosphere that is Leonard’s shop, but the rough language rarely adds to the film’s authenticity.

Mark Rylance gives an admirably restrained performance as the English gentleman surrounded by dreamers, oafs and jackals. He brings life to his role, maintaining a serene presence despite the at-times violent drama that plays out over the course of an evening. Supporting players are just that; they exist in support of Rylance’s performance — their roles rarely suggest that there’s a lot going on beneath the surface.

Plot complexities are often explained in dialog rather than demonstrated visually or through action. It turns out that “The Outfit” has more in common with British drawing room murder mysteries than American gangster films. It’s like a good ole fashioned “who-dunnit” dressed in pinstripe suits and fedoras. 

Still, “The Outfit” is an absorbing if not totally convincing drama, and would be perfectly at home on the stage. All of which is fine, so long as you’re expecting a theatrical experience — not “The Sopranos.”