The Outfit (2022) * * *

Directed by:  Graham Moore

Starring:  Mark Rylance, Zoey Deutch, Johnny Flynn, Alan Mehdizadeh, Dylan O'Brien, Simon Russell Beale, Nikki Amuka-Bird

Cutter (don't call him a tailor) Leonard Burling (Rylance) operates a small tailor shop in 1956 Chicago.  Aside from his assistant Mabel (Deutch), Leonard does all the work customizing suits for his clients, which include members of the Boyle crime family.   Crime boss Roy Boyle (Beale), his son Richie (O'Brien) and up-and-comer Francis (Flynn), frequent the shop to meet up, plot their next crime, and collect envelopes from a drop box situated on the shop's back wall.   Some of these envelopes contain money while other specially marked ones contain surveillance tapes made from the FBI bugging the store.  On the night The Outfit takes place, the Boyles are more interested in the tape.   What is on it and who is the informer feeding information to the FBI?  

Leonard, nicknamed "English" in condescending fashion by the Boyles, keeps his head down and his mind on his work.   He knows the Boyles are up to no good, but doesn't want to know what they're doing.   He is a master craftsman creating suits from scratch, but this crime business isn't his game.  However, when Richie is brought into the shop by Francis with a gunshot wound to his abdomen, shit just got real for Leonard and Mabel.   They never expected to be drawn into this violent world directly.

Leonard handles one emergency after another with unexpected calm and intelligence.   He can think on his feet.  His quiet demeanor and directness makes him credible when he is forced to lie to cover up what has gone on throughout the night.   We learn he once had a wife and daughter, but they died in a shop fire in his native London during World War II.  We think it was likely during the Luftwaffe air strikes, but we sense there may have been more to the story.   The thing about Leonard is:  There usually is more than what's on the surface.  

Rylance excels in a performance in which he doesn't (and can't) reveal all the cards.   Like a chess master, he has to see moves ahead in order to escape this night alive.   And what about Mabel?  Richie is her secret beau, but what does she know or not know?   Other crime figures enter the fray which complicates matters exponentially for Leonard.   But through it all, he doesn't panic and barely breaks a sweat.   He's almost too cool under pressure, which makes you wonder what secrets he's hiding.  

The Outfit at times plays a tad too theatrical since the entirety of the action takes place in one room over the course of one night.   But it keeps you guessing even well past the point you think everything has been figured out.   There may be one or two revelations too many to be completely believable, but The Outfit is steady, suspenseful entertainment.