The Little Things (2021)
SHOULD I SEE IT?
YES
A murder mystery suspense/thriller with three Oscar winning actors is hard to ignore.
For fans of movies like Seven and other moody, dark, atmospheric serial killer mysteries from years’ gone by, The Little Things might feel like a nice throwback.
I will say this: It will definitely keep you guessing.
NO
I will repeat: It will definitely keep you guessing (long after the credits come to an end).
Derivative of better movies, The Little Things is a mess, a poorly written mystery with no real emotional attachment developed or built between story and audience.
You don’t want to solve the mystery by the end; you just all of these characters to go away and not bother you ever again.
OUR REVIEW
Three Oscar winning actors. A throwback-style 1990s suspense/thriller. A moody, darkly hued police procedural with an embrace of ambiguity. The Little Things is, on paper, a film that should be a winner. Led by Denzel Washington, with Rami Malek and Jared Leto rounding out a strong ensemble, writer/director John Lee Hancock (The Blind Side) reminds us of like Seven, and any number of those ominous-looking, somber serial killer mysteries of the 1990s and early 2000s.
The Se7en comparison is all too easy. Washington is to Morgan Freeman as Malek is to Brad Pitt and Leto is to Kevin Spacey. Hancock wrote the script in 1993, initially intended for Steven Spielberg who balked at the darker elements of the screenplay. With the benefit of time, Hancock decided to bring The Little Things to life, a passion project of sorts. However, when you look at his throwback aesthetic and vibe here, this feels like a film borrowing more than just a few “little things” we have seen before.
For one: Hancock seems a little over his skis in tackling a film like this. His screenplay is a slow, labored affair, with tonal shifts that seem telegraphed far ahead of their arrival or often prove to be much ado about nothing.
We first encounter Joe “Deke” Deacon (Washington), a deputy sheriff in Northern California who relocated away from Los Angeles years before for reasons not initially made clear. When he returns to the city to follow up with an investigation, he reconnects with former colleagues and tries to smile his way through awkward interactions. Turns out, not everyone is thrilled to see Deke back in town.
He encounters Jim Baxter (Malek), a spotlight-chasing young detective who loves the notoriety and fame associated with his job. When the two cross paths, Jim asks him to assist with a murder investigation which calls up old memories of an unsolved case from Deke’s past. As the investigation finds another murder victim, now up to six women killed by an unknown assailant, Deke hangs around and he and Jim find a possible suspect: Albert Sparma (Leto), a strange oddity of a man, who works as an electrician and is obsessed with true crime.
At this point, with Leto in the fold, The Little Things builds to a moment where the three Oscar winners are together in an interrogation room – a scene which offers the potential of being something remarkable. However, the moment completely misses the mark. The intensity is sorely lacking, the staging befuddling. With strong talent on screen, Hancock never addresses how little empathy we feel for anyone’s struggle or challenges. His screenplay does these actors no favors, cultivating an inability to make us care about anything.
A strong score from Thomas Newman provides some much-needed mood and atmosphere, but Hancock is pretty rudderless here: His characters are unlikable, his story feels like a retread, and when a final act arrives which places three main characters in a desert - well, stop me if you’ve heard or seen this once before.
Washington’s steady hand as an actor cannot mask the screenplay adding obfuscation for the sake of obfuscation. Why does Deke have visions? How is he chummy with a medical examiner he used to work with, then equally as comfortable sitting in the autopsy room and striking up a monologue-style conversation with a deceased murder victim? Is he supposed to be crazy? Having mental issues? Is he sad and lonely over being booted out of a job he loved more than anything?
“Sure?” seems to be the answer. Malek’s character is even more scattershot in conception. He presents initially as a camera-hungry egomaniac, gruff and cocky. He has zero relationship with his wife and two young children, a point barely explored with any depth. We could play the workaholic angle, but really it just seems like he’s a really awful husband and father. Case in point, his wife makes a nice breakfast for Deke and Jim and the kids one morning. Deke pays Jim a nice compliment about his family and Jim flat out ignores it and pivots right back to work.
Why is he so terrible? Later, when his wife looks sadly upon Jim at 4 a.m. in the morning, awake and despondent, sitting alone in the living room, we feel zero empathy for him. When presented as someone who cares only of himself, with no effort to redeem himself outside of maintaining his high-profile job and status, Hancock makes Jim a narcissist, whose wife should probably file divorce papers.
When Leto arrives, his bizarre cadence, gaunt appearance, and strange actions give the film a jolt for a minute or two, but quickly he becomes just another strange might-have-done-it. There’s nothing novel or clever or unique here. The focus is all over the place. And by the end, when Hancock leaves things up for interpretation, we just want something spoon-fed to us because at least then, we might have all these inconsequential “little things” finally add up to something meaningful and substantive.
CAST & CREW
Starring: Denzel Washington, Rami Malek, Jared Leto, Michael Hyatt, Terry Kinney, Natalie Morales, Isabel Arraiza, Glenn Morshower, Maya Kazan.
Director: John Lee Hancock
Written by: John Lee Hancock
Release Date: January 29, 2021
Warner Bros. Pictures | HBO Max