Movie Review: The Outfit

 

Michael's Movie Grade: B+

An excellent thriller.

There is no doubt that director and co-writer Graham Moore (for whom this is his first time directing a feature film) enjoyed making this movie. It is easy to sense here that feeling of pure passion for making movies. Despite the often darkness of the subject matter and much of what happens, there is a certain playfulness here. This is especially evident in various of the great montages that are seen in this picture and the film's desire to keep its audience constantly guessing. This is truly a movie that will keep one guessing what is going to happen next every step of the way. While not every one of these plot twists work, the majority of them are excellent. You are often left wondering just who these characters really are and what exactly they are not telling us (or any of the other characters for that matter). This movie also is filled with that great dialogue that used to be common in movies but is becoming much rarer today. It is delightful to see a modern movie that is filled with such great dialogue and can easily hold our interest during scenes where it is simply just people talking. This is not to say that this film is not visually effective as well. Though this film is mostly located in one place, that place is filmed and lit in such a way that there is a wonderful, dark and foreboding atmosphere that I simply loved. Because of this unlike similar films this always feels like a movie rather than a filmed stage play. Of course, for a movie like this, one of the most important elements is the cast. Luckily the cast is fantastic here. While the whole cast is great, Mark Rylance and Zoey Deutch are especially fantastic and bring a real magnetism to this film.   

This movie does have some big faults though. While I won't give much away the final scene and the plot twist therein, feel too over the top and at odds with the rest of the film. This movie also does not need the heavy-handed narration from our main character. Still with how fantastic the rest of the movie is these faults are easy to forgive.