The Little Things Movie Review

The Little Things (2021)

Watch the trailer
Written by: John Lee Hancock
Directed by: John Lee Hancock
Starring: Denzel Washington, Rami Malek, Jared Leto, Chris Bauer, Natalie Morales
Rated: R

Plot
Deputy Sheriff Joe "Deke" Deacon joins forces with Sgt. Jim Baxter to search for a serial killer who's terrorizing Los Angeles. As they track the culprit, Baxter is unaware that the investigation is dredging up echoes of Deke's past, uncovering disturbing secrets that could threaten more than his case.

Verdict
A throwback thriller that builds a nice, if forgettable, story. The ending subverts expectations, but doesn't leave a lasting impact. With a solid cast, Jared Leto is the only one that really stands out. He manages to create an interesting character out of very little.
It depends.

Review
John Lee Hancock wrote this in 1993 for Steven Spielberg who passed as it was too dark. Various directors were attached through the years like Clint Eastwood before Hancock got attached. He previously directed The Founder.

Denzel Washington plays Deacon.

This certainly feels like a movie from the '90s, and it's interesting that it's still set in the '90s, though the absence of cell phones and inclusion of pay phones does help the movie's tension in a couple of scenes. It reminds me a bit of Se7en though it's not as good. It lacks the sensationalism. The similarity is mostly the time period and neo-noir style.

The opening does a great job of capturing that feeling of fear while driving when someone is driving erratically. There's no dialog and that's effective.
After that we cut to Deacon (Denzel Washington), a county sheriff traveling to Los Angeles for evidence. He seems to know everyone in the precinct. If you guessed he used to work there, you'd be right. The movie teases that something happened in his past, potentially some kind of coverup.

Denzel Washington, Jared Leto, Rami Malek, Chris Bauer.

Deacon gets wrapped up in a new case that reminds him of a case from his past. He pairs up with Jim Baxter (Rami Malek), and through Deacon's detective work they soon have a suspect.

This movie has some nice scenes. There's a sequence where Deacon is trailing Sparma (Jared Leto). It's a quiet scene that is two cars playing tag as they take different exits, but it works really well. Leto does a great job playing a weird character that's a little spaced out. The character is rather genre savvy which helps.

The ending loses me a bit. Deacon is able to follow a car without knowing where it's going. The movie wants to chalk that up to little details, but it's a stretch. Baxter ends up looking for a grave, but if someone was buried on the spot the ground should look disturbed. For a movie that talks about little details, that's a significant thing to miss. 

I wondered where this go and I appreciate it didn't turn out as expected. This certainly feels older than it is due to the setting. I like the ending even if it lacks a bit of punch. In hindsight the movie does a great job of setting up certain portions of the ending, but we get a lot of different threads which lessens the impact of each. Leto manages to make a great performance out of a character that doesn't really do much. He's not as scary as he could be as we don't know if he's the suspect and never see him do much.