The Little Things (2021)
Synopsis: Kern County Deputy Sheriff Joe “Deke” Deacon (Washington) is sent to Los Angeles for what should have been a quick evidence-gathering assignment. Instead, he becomes embroiled in the search for a killer who is terrorizing the city. Leading the hunt, L.A. Sheriff Department Sergeant Jim Baxter (Malek), impressed with Deke’s cop instincts, unofficially engages his help. But as they track the killer, Baxter is unaware that the investigation is dredging up echoes of Deke’s past, uncovering disturbing secrets that could threaten more than his case.
‘The Little Things‘ from John Lee Hancock (The Blind Side, The Founder) is a film that , in its’ advertising, promised an experience on-par with the likes of David Fincher. The trailer and marketing invoked (perhaps unfair) comparisons to ‘Se7en’ and these comparisons would ultimately create a high bar of expectations that the film could never fully overcome.
The film opens on a young woman driving her car down a dark road at night while singing along the the B-52’s song ‘Roam’, as she drives she notices a car keeping pace with her, attempts to shake it off but the car keeps alternating speeds building a very impressive bit of tension in this opening scene. And as she pulls over and attempts to get help at a gas station the driver begins stalking her (while keeping his face obscured), as the scene builds and builds she is saved by stopping a passing trucker and the movie begins. The promise of this opening scene is sadly never captured again the rest of the runtime.
The strength of The Little Things comes in the form of the cast, even though this isn’t close to being career bests from any of the leads they do still manage to deliver some entertaining scene work. Denzel shines with his ability to rescue even the most uninteresting bits of dialogue with his impeccable line delivery (a scene with Rami Malek’s family where he proclaims “I’m divorced” after a question from Malek’s wife was so perfect it almost made me choke). Rami Malek can tell a whole story with just the way that he postures his mouth and eyeline, it is truly impressive the way he can nonverbally carry a scene. And Jared Leto has the most fun in the movie and his eyes terrify you, they at times seem fully black like a diseased rat. This cast makes you wish they had been handed a better script and more appropriate direction.
Truly the failures of the film can be attributed one thing: The script is uneven to say the least. Consider that we open on a scene that promises a cat and mouse detective thriller where we get to see these detectives hunt down a killer, and instead we follow Denzel’s Deke character as he attempts redemption for a failure that he made years before while hunting the same killer. It flips into an examination of coverups in the police force and the path Rami Malek’s character is going down that reminds Denzel of the path he went down as well. And, examining the tolls of obsession on a case could have been a very interesting path as well, but even that isn’t fully explored. We never see how this is affecting the characters fully. We don’t see lives falling apart. We just get a few words on Denzel’s past and we get an ending that feels beyond unsatisfying. I won’t get into spoilers for the sake of those who haven’t seen it but I can say that you will find yourself wondering of you are watching a completely different movie from the opening scene.
Overall I believe that this film made a lot of promises and didn’t deliver on most of them. However, I don’t regret watching it and I do plan on watching it again. It is an enjoyable movie, but it just isn’t great in the way these actors deserved it to be.
Final Score: 2.5/5
Born and raised in DFW Texas. 24 years old. Studied at Texas Wesleyan University. Positively love movies and love writing about them and everything that goes into them.