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Movies like “The Little Things” have the feeling of being a dying breed. It seemed like there was a dark, brooding thriller adaptation every week after the success of “The Silence of the Lambs,” titles like “Kiss the Girls” and “The Bone Collector,” and Denzel Washington appeared in what seemed like half of them, thanks to the success of the original film. In recent years, shows like “True Detective” and “Mindhunter” have taken on the stories of men who are haunted by the crimes they investigate, and the genre has largely become a product of television. As a result, “The Little Things” feels a little out of date, although the way it evokes better films with similar themes, particularly David Fincher’s “Seven,” doesn’t help matters. In many ways, it’s a film that is constantly on the verge of becoming something as intense and haunting as writer/director John Lee Hancock wants it to be, but it never quite manages to achieve those goals, particularly in the film’s final half-hour. However, while some of the major elements of the film work, such as a performance from Washington that is better than the film around it (yet again), some striking L.A. cinematography, and an effective score, it is the minor details that bring it down. There are a couple of big things as well.
Joe Deacon (Washington) is a disgraced former Los Angeles police officer who now works in Bakersfield, California, and lives alone on the outskirts of civilization. Our story takes place in 1990 for no other reason than that it is set in close proximity to the Night Stalker case, which is still fresh in the minds of the public when a new serial killer emerges in the City of Angels in the wake of the Night Stalker case (and “The Little Things” was reportedly initially written a quarter-century ago, which could explain why it feels so much like the potboilers of that era). After a particularly brutal case went unsolved, it is revealed that “Deke” lost his marriage and suffered a heart attack before being forced to flee the city. Despite the fact that he is haunted and despised by his former colleagues, including Captain Carl Farris (Terry Kinney) and Detective Sal Rizoli (Chris Bauer), Deke finds himself sucked back into the world that nearly destroyed him when he ends up assisting his replacement, Jim Baxter (Rami Malek), with the serial killer case that is wreaking havoc throughout the city. A loner named Albert Sparma (Jared Leto) quickly emerges as their most likely suspect, and “The Little Things” quickly turns into a cat and mouse game between the two detectives and “the creepiest guy in L.A.,” a disturbing character who appears to derive pleasure from playing games with the cops.
It is in the first third of “The Little Things” that the procedural quality is most effective, as Baxter determines whether or not the legendary Joe Deacon can assist him in solving the case of his life. Inevitably, there is an inherent new school vs. old school component to the storytelling that recalls “Seven” while also providing a vision of Baxter’s future in the emotionally distraught Deacon, which is reminiscent of “Seven.” After seeing the victims in the middle of the night in his dingy hotel room, the older cop believes he has been haunted by them for some time. Even though the notion that a cop can become so involved in a case that it ultimately destroys them provides Washington with a lot of material to work with, the film is ultimately shallow due to how little we get to know the victims—they are merely ghosts and nothing more. With the exception of Natalie Morales, who is underutilized as an officer, and Michael Hyatt, who plays a coroner, women are largely treated as victims or spouses in the background of this story.
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The immediacy of Washington’s performance allows the middle section of “The Little Things” to get away with it. The film’s interrogation scene and even a scene in which Sparma taunts him on a road are more effective because of Washington’s performance than they would have been had he played the role with a less accomplished actor. When it comes to being present in the moment, Washington possesses extraordinary ability. We believe he is listening, reacting, and responding in a way that does not sound like he is reading lines or acting in a manner that has been blocked. Leto, on the other hand, has been unable to do anything that hasn’t been exaggerated in recent months, and he leans into all of his worst tendencies in this film. Malek falls somewhere in the middle, initially coming across as a little too broadly eccentric, but he either improved as the film progressed or I simply became accustomed to his mannerisms. Despite this, it’s difficult to shake the impression that Washington is in a more grounded film than his co-stars are. He’s attempting to perform “Zodiac” at the same time as they’re performing “Along Came a Spider.”
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Later in the film, Hancock’s lack of urgency is not countered by a sense of tension, and the film comes apart. Like clockwork, the new guy begins to succumb to the same obsession that destroyed the previous one, and then the movie twists a few times in ways that defy logic, leading to a dissatisfying conclusion. In some ways, it feels like Hancock is trying to tell a story that is very “True Detective” in nature—one about how a case can tear a person apart from the inside out in a way that changes them for the rest of their lives—but he is unable to figure out how to turn that into an intriguing mystery at the same time. The feeling that everything has added up to nothing by the time it’s over is difficult to shake once it’s over.
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“The Little Things” will be released in theaters on January 29, 2021, and will also be available on HBO Max that same day for a limited time period.
For more personality quizzes check this: The Unholy Quiz.
