THE OUTFIT (2022)
A clever, twist-filled gangster thriller for discerning adults only.
Should You Watch It?
The Outfit is an entertaining, tightly constructed crime thriller with many surprising and terrific plot twists. Mark Rylance holds the movie together as Leonard, a mysterious and meticulous tailor whose shop becomes a dangerous meeting place for Chicago gangsters.
The movie gives mobsters their just desserts, and Leonard turns the tables on them as gangsters die, sometimes at one another’s hands. But the payoff comes with a serious content cost: lots of strong foul language, graphic and bloody violence, smoking, and morally questionable business involving a secret FBI tape and a gang payoff.
If you are a discerning adult or older teenager who can handle those elements, this is a well-made thriller worth seeing. For children and young teens, choose something else. The practical answer: WORTH THE TRIP — ADULTS ONLY.
The Story
NO SPOILERS — WE KEEP THE SURPRISESLeonard is the meticulous English owner of a small tailor shop in Chicago in 1956. Unbeknownst to most customers, local gangsters use his shop as a drop box for contacting the Outfit, the organization running all the major gangs in the country.
When the gangsters discover a mole working with the FBI, the danger reaches Leonard’s shop. The head gangster’s son, Richie, arrives wounded with Francis, the gangster’s right-hand man. Leonard must think fast as the situation becomes increasingly dangerous.
Is It Any Good?
Four stars means this is a highly entertaining and skillfully plotted thriller. The movie has many surprising, terrific, clever plot twists, and Mark Rylance holds it together as the mysterious, meticulous owner of the tailor shop.
The gangster plot keeps tightening as Leonard turns the tables on the mobsters. Some end up dead, even killing one another. The film’s strongest qualities are its clever plotting, suspenseful complications, and Rylance’s central performance.
The Worldview
The Outfit presents a humanist tale of survival. Its world is shaped by gangsters, deception, betrayal, and competing attempts to control dangerous information. The film exalts cleverness, survival, and protection, particularly as Leonard turns against the mobsters and a man protects a woman from them.
The movie also gives the gangsters their just desserts. However, that justice is presented through human schemes and violence rather than a clear acknowledgment of God’s authority. The morally questionable exchange of money for a secret FBI tape further complicates the film’s treatment of right and wrong.
The film’s longing for survival and justice points beyond human cleverness to the God who judges rightly: “Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord” (Romans 12:19).
The Content Guide
The specifics — spoilers included by nature — so you can judge for your own family.
Dominant Worldview and Other Worldview Content/Elements
Humanist tale of survival, with gangsters getting their just desserts, and man protects woman from the gangsters
Foul Language
84 obscenities (mostly “f” words) and six GD profanities
Violence
A man is forced to stitch up another man’s gunshot wound that went into his stomach and through his back and stomach, two gangsters fight, and one man slits the other man’s throat, killer mops up the gangster’s blood on floor, killer stuffs dead man’s corpse into a trunk, gangsters threaten to torture woman, two other gangsters shoot another gangster, arson, two men fight to the death, and a man is stabbed
Sex
No sex scenes but a gangster’s son and a woman who works at the tailor shop in the movie enter the shop one night and passionately kiss
Nudity
Upper male nudity when two men try to fix a man’s gunshot wound
Alcohol Use
Brief alcohol use
Smoking and/or Drug Use and Abuse
Some smoking but no drugs;
Miscellaneous Immorality
One of the movie’s morally questionable subplots involves the exchange of some money for a secret FBI tape, and there’s some deceit and betrayal involved.
Talk About It
Questions for the drive home, the dinner table, or the youth group.
Leonard survives by thinking carefully under pressure. When have you been tempted to trust cleverness more than wisdom?
Proverbs 3:5–7 · James 1:5The film includes deceit, betrayal, and a morally questionable exchange of money. How should Christians pursue truth when dishonesty appears useful?
Ephesians 4:25 · Proverbs 12:22The gangsters receive their just desserts through human violence. How does biblical justice differ from personal vengeance?
Romans 12:19 · Micah 6:8A man protects a woman from gangsters. What does Scripture teach about using strength to protect people who are vulnerable?
Psalm 82:3–4 · Proverbs 31:8–9The Final Word
The Outfit is a cleverly plotted, entertaining thriller anchored by Mark Rylance’s meticulous performance. Its strong language, graphic violence, smoking, and morally questionable dealings make it unsuitable for children and young teens. For discerning adults and older teenagers, it is WORTH THE TRIP — ADULTS ONLY. For other family movie nights, see.
