“The Little Things” Review

“The Little Things” stars Denzel Washington (Left) and Rami Malek as a pair of police detectives who try to hunt down an elusive serial killer.

“The Little Things” takes such riveting subjects, like crime and serial killers, that many have a borderline sick fascination with and manages to make it dull, which is a far greater crime than any murder that takes place in this film.

Taking place in 1990 Los Angeles, a serial killer is on the loose and is killing women, leaving their bodies behind in a similarly grotesque artistic manner. Investigating these crimes are an older, more hardened deputy sheriff named Joe Deacon (Denzel Washington) and a younger, more ambitious detective named Jim Baxter (Rami Malek) who want to wrap up the case and find the murderer before the feds take over. 

When they encounter a strange local (Jared Leto), the case begins to become more strange as Deacon and Baxter begin to suspect that the local, Albert Sparma, might be their guy.

The investment of the audience into this familiar story mainly rests on the two lead actors. With Oscar-winning talent like Denzel Washington and Rami Malek, they captivate the audience with their obsession with solving these murders. Both Deacon and Baxter have an emotional connection to the case which is completely justified and, the further they get involved, the more they risk losing themselves.

Despite earning both Golden Globe and Screen Actors Guild nominations for Best Supporting Actor, Leto’s role seems very underutilized and his performance, while creepy throughout his time on screen, seems basic compared to Leto’s past work.

Jared Leto’s performance earned him both Golden Globe and Screen Actors Guild Award nominations for Best Supporting Actor.

“The Little Things” also boasts an extraordinary production with neo-noir type lighting and dark, moody cinematography which makes it a visually interesting film. Between the brilliant look of “The Little Things” and its cast, this makes the overall story even more disappointing due to a lack of solid direction.

After a relatively exciting beginning, the story constantly meanders and, by the film’s end, becomes so uninteresting and boring that the viewer feels like a cop on a stakeout where the guy doesn’t leave his house for nine hours. The entire film sets up all the dominoes to fall in one seamless direction and, instead, only some of them collapse in all kinds of directions resulting in an ending that is as disappointing as it is nonsensical.

The film was first written by its director, John Lee Hancock of “The Blind Side,” “Saving Mr. Banks” and “The Founder,” back in the early 1990s and, by the look of it, he made very few edits when he finally got to helm this film. We’ve had several good films that have a similar premise, like David Fincher’s “Seven,” and “The Little Things,” adds nothing new or interesting for that matter.

Because the production is so good and three of the best actors of this era of filmmaking are all giving solid performances, “The Little Things” is a highly disappointing project from an otherwise entertaining director.