The Outsider review: Underdeveloped and a halfhearted effort by all involved
By Shah Shahid
The Outsider is Netflix’s newest original film, starring Jared Leto, in a bland and uninteresting crime drama.
Another Netflix original, The Outsider, features an American soldier attempting to find a place for himself in the middle of a Yakuza gang war in Japan. The movie depicts a post-WWII Japan, and while the setting is interesting, it’s not explored enough to have any real impact or make anyone care.
Jared Leto is Nick, a man without a home, who accidentally ingratiates himself to a Yakuza boss while in a Japanese prison. Upon his release, he is taken into the fold and taught the ways of the deadly gang as he climbs the ranks and is welcomed into the family; more so by some than others.
The Outsider is your typical movie about a pariah being accepted into a culture other than his own, having to earn his spot within it, prove his mettle, and become involved in all their problems and causes. It’s very much like The Last Samurai, only not as good. It’s clear to see what The Outsider was trying to be, but the execution of a half interesting story, ruined by a dull performance by the lead hero, makes it a failure by all standards.
The story is very much reliant on Leto’s Nick being an American in Japan, after Japan’s defeat in World War II, in a very anti-American climate. Yet, the Japanese characters’ hatred for Nick for those reasons is never fully explained or articulated by anybody.
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The setting is wasted, as it’s not even clear what time period the movie is set in, until Emil Hirsch shows up as an American soldier talking about Nagasaki and Hiroshima. The Outsider had a great opportunity to take a look at the world post-WWII from a Japanese perspective but failed to develop any semblance of a world that felt authentic.
The story itself takes a long time to develop, and the pay off isn’t worth it. Nick climbs the ranks, proving himself and ultimately becoming accepted by the Yakuza boss as a member of his gang. He develops a deep friendship with Tadanobu Asano’s Yoshimoto and even falls in love with his sister Miyu, played by Shioli Kutsuna.
However, the story doesn’t really go anywhere beyond that. Nick is just caught up in the politics of gang warfare between his and a rival gang vying for control of territory. He goes through the motions as he’s present in every scene, and sees the scenes to completion. Leto’s performance is phoned in; what’s supposed to look a cold and calculated character, comes off more like he’s waiting for someone to yell ‘Cut!’ in every scene.
The Outsider moves at a snail’s pace for the first half and then ramps up the second half with a climax that feels entirely unresolved and meaningless. The protagonist, Nick, has no internal growth or development, other than the external situations that make him move from point A to B.
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Even the premise of Nick being an American, feels unnecessary and exploitative. Especially given that it has very little impact on the story. It’s a plot device that could be done with any Japanese character, with tweaks to the back story.
Why not a Japanese character whose father betrayed his own people during the war, and so the son has to clear his family name and find acceptance within the Yakuza? Or a Japanese character who was himself deserter of the Japanese army, who has to redeem himself?
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This is an entirely too familiar situation where the casting of a Caucasian American actor feels more like a business decision to sell the movie to Western audiences, instead of any in-story reasoning. And that just feels cheap.
The Outsider joins the ever-growing list of disappointing Netflix original movies that feel underdeveloped in every possible way.