Writer Graham Moore won an Oscar for The Imitation Game. And now he’s giving us a movie I liked more. Mark Rylance won an Oscar for Bridge of Spies (which ticked off Sylvestor Stallone’s brother). Rylance is better in this, and I will state this right now – his performance will be my favorite by an actor this year. Now, that doesn’t mean this is a perfect movie. It’s a bit slow in parts and the ending is a bit of a mess. Yet it’s a throwback to a certain type of noir, gangster picture that’s a blast.
Moore said he was inspired by Hitchcock’s Rope (and to me, it looks like even the movie poster was inspired by the guy Hitchcock used – Saul Bass).
This is a tightly wound, taut thriller that keeps you on the edge of your seat. And much like Reservoir Dogs, we see the before and after of a crime, but it all takes place in one room – the shop of a tailor that came to Chicago in the ‘50s from Savile Row in London. It’s his bad luck that he’s working on all the suits for the mob and ends up in the middle of a kerfuffle. And while you start watching a character study of a quiet man stitching blazers, you end up worried about how he’s going to handle these hoods.
There are moments when you’ll think you’re going to see the mobster tropes you get in other pictures. The son of the mob boss, Richie (Dylan O’Brien), is a moron with a hot temper. He reminded me of Ray Liotta in Goodfellas. The naive receptionist Mable (Zoey Deutch) doesn’t know well enough to not get mixed up with him. There’s Francis (Johnny Flynn), whom dad seems to like more than his own son, even though he’s not family. He has a menacing presence that isn’t over-the-top. There’s a rat, everyone is suspicious of everyone else, and bullets will fly and blood will spill. When the head mob boss finally shows up (British stage actor Simon Russell Beale, who is also outstanding), with a huge guy holding a Tommy gun – it reminded me of Bound.
It didn’t make much sense that Leonard would let the mobsters use his store to drop off payments and messages, yet you still have sympathy for him once things go south.
We learn there’s an organization called The Outfit, which is an elite criminal organization these mobsters want to be part of. It makes the title of the movie, which we think is going to be about a bespectacled old tailor who sews outfits, even more clever.
Cinematographer Dick Pope, one of the best in the business (Thin Ice was my favorite of his) probably wishes he didn’t have to stay on one set; but it adds a claustrophobic vibe for a story that takes place over the course of a single day. The atmosphere and script give you just the right amount of tension.
I glanced at some of the other critics to see what they had to say about the film (it got great reviews), and every single one of them gave things away in the movie. Just knowing what the premise is, and the performances being outstanding, should be enough to convince you to go to the theater to check it out. I’m glad it got the bad taste out of my mouth that I had for the overly hyped and boring Phantom Thread.
I caught it at my favorite place, the Angelika Film Center, but it might not be there much longer. Catch it while you can.
3 ½ stars out of 5.