“The Godfather” was praised for its incredible scale and scope, but not every gangster film needs to be an epic. The underrated thriller. “The Outfit” does a great job at setting a gangster story within a confined environment. Writer-director Graham Moore creates a claustrophobic atmosphere, which makes the gangster characters even more intimidating. Imagine the thrilling restaurant assassination scene from “The Godfather.” What if that was the premise for an entire movie?
“The Outfit” is set in Chicago, Illinois, in the 1950s. The film follows lonely British tailor Leonard Burling (Mark Rylance). Burling’s small store is trapped in an area controlled by the Irish Mafia. Crime boss Roy Boyle (Simon Russell Beale) sends his son, Ritchie (Dylan O’Brien), and his enforcer, Francis (Johnny Flynn), to intimidate Burling. The two gangsters tell Burling that they are going to use his shop to stash dirty money. They are part of Al Capino’s crime syndicate, known by gangsters as “The Outfit.”
However, Ritchie is almost killed after a brawl with a rival crime family. He returns to Burling’s shop and reunites with his girlfriend, Mable (Zoey Deutch). Although Mable is employed as Burling’s assistant, she wants to leave Illinois with Ritchie. When Francis arrives to investigate, he discovers that Mable is secretly an FBI informant. She only began dating Ritchie to report his crimes to the authorities. Burling is forced to negotiate the intense standoff. However, the kind-hearted shopkeeper has more secrets than anyone realizes.