We often see a lot of plays that become movies, but The Outfit I actually can see the opposite happening. The movie takes place in basically two rooms for two hours: pretty cheap and easy to build. If the movie version is any indication, The Outfit play is gonna have a long run in the West End or Broadway: apparently two rooms means twice the tension and entertainment!
Mark Rylance plays Leonard, a “cutter” as he calls himself, leaving England to open a tailor shop in Chicago in the 1950s. He’s a mainstay in the neighborhood at this point; everyone, including the local mob boss (Simon Russell Beale) knows who he is. Hell even the boss’s son Richie (Dylan O’Brien) is dating Leonard’s assistant Mable (Zoey Deutch). The compromise Leonard makes is he has a dropbox in the back the mob uses to conduct business which Leonard hoped would leave him out of the action. That all changes one fateful night when Richie and his partner Francis (Johnny Flynn) get jumped by a rival gang and use Leonard’s shop to fix themselves up and call for backup.
A good comp for The Outfit (though not as good) is Alfred Hitchcock’s Rope, with a group of people, always talking, some in the know, some not, all in a couple rooms. The twist is we’re firmly in Mark Rylance’s head throughout the course of the movie, viewing the entire crazy night through his simple seeming eyes. For the most part, Graham Moore and Jonathan McClain’s script does what a good thriller should do. It’s not flashy, but the pair unveil little revelations every 5-10 minutes, and letting each revelation swap character’s relative upper hands and escalate the tension a little more. Then a little more, and more. Until by the end, you’ll find yourself grasping the seat, and then releasing with applause or a well earned sigh of catharsis. I did a mini woop myself.
It helps that everyone brings their A game. Dylan O’Brien is solid conveying unearned bravado as the son of a badass, with Johnny Flynn and Simon Russell Beale actually oozing that real swagger. Zoey Deutch is at her best acting when not speaking her, reading the room and changing her approach accordingly. But The Outfit holds together because of Mark Rylance, who’s been a movie force since Bridge of Spies. While everyone around Rylance is making moves and outwardly playing their hands, Rylance is the eye of the tornado, slowly maneuvering the storm where he wants through words and presence alone, because all of these people tower over him. The Outfit falls apart if you don’t believe Leonard can willingly convince all of these powerful forces to do what he says, and Rylance’s calm but direct delivery commands everyone’s attention despite their standing in Chicago’s pecking order.
It seems almost cruel to label The Outfit as a competently made thriller. But I’ll trade thought and patience with a script and its characters over flashy dynamic empty action sequences all day. That’s right Red Notice, your thriller still sucks, now losing out to two London based Chicago style rooms and Mark Rylance despite all that money you had.