The Outfit is such a preposterously contrived crime thriller, complete with impossibly convenient timing, dead bodies cooling undetected right under people’s noses, and plot twists driven by inexplicable decision-making, that I assumed it was a one-act play written by an Agatha Christie wannabe in about 1947. Turns out it’s fresh material, though: the directorial debut of Graham Moore, who won an Oscar for writing the 2010 movie The Imitation Game. Which was equally forced and heavy-handed.
Co-written by Moore and Johnathan McClain, The Outfit starts out with a groaner of a double entendre in its title, which refers to both an organized-crime gang and a bespoke suit. (Except I doubt any Savile Row patron refers to his suit as “an outfit,” the way a sorority girl refers to her clothes.) The feel of the movie is similar to Road to Perdition: Midwestern-throwback mob story that gives off the strong impression that no one involved in it bothered to do their homework about how the mob actually works. Really, the gangsters in this movie seem to have forgotten some pretty basic stuff. If you happen to murder someone, would you allow a witness standing next to the victim to survive? Especially if you didn’t trust the witness very much?
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