“The Outfit” is a smart movie — maybe a little too smart for its own good here and there, but let’s not quibble. It’s a welcome change of pace, a compressed, highly pressurized drama, that takes place in a single location, with impeccable actors doing strong work.

Set in Chicago in the mid-1950s, Leonard, a tailor played by Mark Rylance (“Bridge of Spies”), has a shop in a rough part of town. He was trained on London’s Savile Row and now makes custom-made suits, though the only people who seem to be able to afford them are gangsters. Leonard has every gangster in Chicago looking great and not like typical gangsters, but rather like casually elegant men about town.

Leonard also allows — he doesn’t seem to have much of a choice — the mob to keep a drop box in his sewing room. Gangsters leave packages and other gangsters pick them up, so it’s a constant parade of rough-looking, well-dressed men walking in and out of his shop all day long.

The role of the tailor is a perfect pitch for Rylance, whose complicated screen persona is ideal for this. There’s gentleness, with the suggestion of moral compromise. There’s the reticence of someone who knows more than he says. And there’s the shrewdness beneath a mask of humility. The tailor’s assistant (Zoey Deutch), whom he regards as a second daughter, projects some of those same qualities, too, but in a looser, American style.

One night, when Leonard is working late, the mob boss’ son, Richie (Dylan O’Brien), and his associate, Francis (Johnny Flynn), show up at Leonard’s shop and set in motion a very long night. Richie has been shot and needs to be operated on. Finding a surgeon is not an option. Really, all they need is someone who can sew.

In a movie that plays out almost entirely in one place and in practically real time, the actors have nowhere to hide. Everyone who walks in and out of the film, in large parts and small, must know why they’re there and bring an entire life history with them. In his first feature as a director, Graham Moore, best known for his screenplay for “The Imitation Game,” establishes himself a gifted director of actors.

It’s a special pleasure to see Rylance working opposite Simon Russell Beale (“Mary Queen of Scots”) as the Chicago mob boss. The British Beale is not the first actor you might think of to play an American gangster, but the pairing of Beale and Rylance — two powerhouses of the West End stage — is inspired. Their long scene together becomes a delicate dance in which much is communicated in looks and pauses.

That Beale and Rylance are extraordinary actors isn’t news. The acting revelation of “The Outfit” is Flynn as Francis. He previously played a scruffy Mr. Knightley in the Anya Taylor-Joy “Emma,” but here, in a villainous role, he comes fully into focus as a charismatic, thoughtful and menacing presence. He looks like a combination of Tom Hardy and the young Robert Redford, and has the aura and mystery of a star.

As for the screenplay, by Moore and Johnathan McClain, it’s a beautiful piece of construction — at least until it begins to seem like a beautiful piece of construction. There are turns and twists and multiple dashes of the unexpected, and it is all impressively arranged and justified. But it has one surprise too many.

Still, the biggest surprise of “The Outfit” is also the happiest, which is that this small-scale, modestly budgeted feature film is one of the best-acted movies of the season.

M“The Outfit”:Drama. Starring Mark Rylance, Zoey Deutch, Johnny Flynn and Simon Russell Beale. Directed by Graham Moore. (R. 105 minutes.) In theaters Friday, March 18.