Movie Review - The Little Things

Director: John Lee Hancock
Genre: Crime/ Thriller/ Drama
Runtime: 128 minutes
Year: 2021
Starring: Denzel Washington, Rami Malek, Jared Leto

Description: Kern County Deputy Sheriff Joe Deacon (Denzel Washington) is sent to Los Angeles for what should have been a quick evidence-gathered assignment. Instead, he becomes embroiled in the search for a serial killer who is terrorizing the city.

Review: The films has a more than interesting main theme, but director John Lee Hancock doesn’t succeed in giving enough space to the obsessive background of especially Denzel Washington’s character. With three Oscar-winning actors, Denzel Washington, Jared Leto and Rami Malek, the expectations are high, but surely not met.
The film opens with a girl being chased in her car and in the dark by an almost classic highway-killer. She just managed to get away, and immediately after that we are introduced to Joe Deacon, a deputy who performs his duties in a small desert town. When his boss orders him to pick up some evidence in Los Angeles, he plans a short day trip to this metropolis a little further west. Once there, everyone seems to know him, although police chief Farris is apparently not so happy about the reunion. After all, Deacon turns out to have been pretty hard-headed years ago, even though he was he most promised detective of Los Angeles before that.
Now that role is for Jim Baxter. Although his search for a serial killer is not as successful as he would’ve wanted. He asks Deacon to come along, when yet another body is found. Because Deacon’s evidence-gathering mission is delayed anyway, he decides to tag along. When at the crime scene Deacon immediately assumes his mysterious profiler posture, then we as viewers already know enough: that Deacon was once a really good cop. But give all those dreams and flashbacks to a previous case, we also know that this case might bring back too many bad memories for him.
The film is okay, but it seems they could have perfected it more. The obsessiveness of Deacon isn’t explored to the fullest and Baxter’s perfectionism and arrogance could’ve been more present. This way, the story also would have made a better impression. Now it all feels half-finished, too many things are missing. Without these three top-notch actors, the film would me mediocre. It’s thanks to Washington, Malek an Leto that this film rises above that.
“The Little Things” feels like a David Fincher movie, without it being one. I think Fincher would have made a very different film with the same actors and story. In terms of atmosphere and cinematography, this film is really strong. But the way this film turned out, was a bit of a disappointment in the end. Such a shame, because for a good portion of the film, the tension definitely grabbed me.

Rating: 3 / 5