After watching the trailer for this movie I have to admit that I did not go into it expecting it to be very good and it certainly delivered on that assumption. It wasn't terrible, but it was completely unrealistic and had a few features of "foreign language films" that I always scoff at.

source

Starring Jared Leto as well as a bunch of other people that I don't know because they are Japanese movies stars (save a few white people cameos such as a brief appearance from Emile Hirsch) this film is almost entirely in Japanese so get ready for some subtitles.

The story begins with Leto being in a Japanese prison for reasons the film does not explain. He initially saves the life of a fellow inmate who happens to be Yakuza (famous Japanese mob.) Later, because of his actions, the Yakuza family takes Nick under their wing and later offers him a job (should have mentioned this previously that Nick is Leto's character name.)

source

Thus begins a completely impractical storyline where an American is not only a member of Yakuza, but a high-ranking officer in it. I don't know if you know much about Yakuza, but it is for the most part an incredibly xenophobic and patriotic organization and therefore it is exceptionally unlikely that a non-Japanese person would be allowed in their ranks, especially someone who doesn't even speak Japanese.

source

Because Nick does a favor or two for the crime family, he is adopted by the boss and is now a "son" of his. He then gets his entire body tattooed, confirming his lifelong membership in the group. I am intentionally being vague because this film, while completely impractical, does have some nice moments - therefore I am not going to reveal much of the story.

Nick is presented as being a quiet member of the group because that is simply his personality. However, I know the real reason and it is quite obvious. Jared Leto can not speak Japanese and that is evident in the camera angles that they use to position behind his head or having him in dark scenes anytime that he speaks more than one word in Japanese - which is almost certainly overdubbed at that point.

I always find it irritating when someone in any movie somehow manages to understand ALL of a foreign language that is spoken to them, but can barely utter a few words. This is clearly what is going on here. I have a hard enough time getting on board with Nick being accepted in their ranks at all and even a harder time believing that he understands the complex instructions given to him by the boss when up to the point the only words he has said in Japanese was "guard!" or "gun!"

Mostly torn apart by critics both professional and common-folk like me, The Outsider has some moments but is mostly a difficult to follow story that is actually kind of dumb and repetitive. There are some interesting scenes but for the most part this movie's only selling point was that it has Jared Leto in it and to me, that really isn't enough.

On a scale of "Urgh!" to "Wowsers!" I award The Outsider the overall score of......

いいえ