‘The Little Things’ Review: Loaded Cast Can’t Save Average Crime Thriller
Stop me if you’ve heard this before – a washed-up former detective teams up with the up-and-coming hotshot detective to try and close the unsolved case that caused the former detective to become washed up. And the case involves a serial killer. The Little Things, written and directed by John Lee Hancock (who is more known now and days for making movies based off of books based off of real-life people or events) tries its hardest to show that THIS version of the run-of-the-mill serial killer detective story really IS different, but the end result reads more like Taking Lives than it does Se7en.
Denzel Washington plays a former detective-turned-rural Deputy “Deke”, whose dedication to capturing a prostitute-killing serial killer years ago led to his dismissal from the force, his divorce, and a heart attack. He is pulled back on the case when the killer strikes again after a long hiatus. This time the case is being led by hot-shot detective Jim Baxter, portrayed by Rami Malek. Their official – then unofficial – investigation leads them to refrigeration repairman/budding sociopath Albert Sparma (Jared Leto), who works his own mind games and manipulations that drive the detectives to work harder and cause the audience to just become needlessly confused.
It’s here that we will get into spoilers in order to critique the movie. The main antagonist of the pieces is played by Leto, who is supposed to be walking the line between brilliant sociopath and manipulative crime fan-boy (he has a series of novels by serial killers and seems able to weasel his way out of any sort of police procedure or evidence they throw at him). A stakeout-gone-wrong separates our detectives – Malek with Leto driving to an abandoned field and Washington trailing them, unsure where they are going. Leto claims that the women who Malek is trying his hardest to find is buried in this field, but continues to be “mistaken” and confused as to exactly where she is buried. While taunting the detective as he digs hole after hole, Leto then says he is innocent, and if the detective believes him they can get in the car and go home. Malek, through his own hubris, ego, and drive, refuses to believe Leto and keeps digging. Finally, Leto goes too far by insinuating Malek’s family is his next target and Malek snaps, killing Leto in blind rage. Washington finds Malek continuing to search the field with Leto dead next to him, believing more than ever that Leto is the killer even though there is no concrete proof. Washington convinces Malek they need to cover up the crime, take a leave of absence, and allow the FBI to finish the investigation.
The last 10 or so minutes of the movie involve Washington covering up the crime. It is then revealed that, years before, Washington’s entire department covered up the accidental manslaughter he caused the night that they first discovered the victims – one of the girls was in fact killed by Washington and the department used their resources to fold her death into the serial killer’s list of victims. As Malek suffers a breakdown, he receives the piece of evidence needed to confirm to himself that Leto was, in fact, the killer. The evidence, however, was falsified and was provided by Washington in order to ease Malek’s consciousness. End of spoilers.
The ultimate issue with this movie is that it hopes to say something important when it doesn’t really amount to much at all. The sudden twist at the end doesn’t build on the movie so much as shock the viewer. With better setup or execution, the dark turn could have been phenomenal. Part of the issue is that the movie claims to focus on the “little things” yet fails to really capitalize on this idea – the harder you pay attention to the little things in the movie the more questions you have, whether with character motivation or plot and story reasons. While you can see the major twist coming at you like a shovel to the head, it doesn’t feel appropriate or earned – it undermines what had been building for most of the movie and the dynamic shift doesn’t carry the closing chapters. One could make the argument that this sudden shift is the purpose of the movie, but if that were the case then it was poorly set up and executed – feeling like little more than a gimmick.
Part of this most likely has to do with how long it took to get to the big screen. This twist – and the ambiguous ending – would have been interesting back in the early 1990’s, but in 2021 the ending has been done and been done by better movies from better filmmakers. John Lee Hancock, who has made a career taking liberties and dramatizing the truth, fails to find a truth of his own at the heart of his serial killer story.
This is not helped in any significant way by Jared Leto, who I would call probably the best bad actor. He never plays realistic or complex people in movies, and that goes doubly true in this movie as walking cliché Albert Sparma, with his slow line delivery causing more laughter AT his performance than intrigue WITH his character. He is more annoying than menacing, like the asshole in school who would give unsolicited, impossible riddles then laugh when you came up with the wrong answer. Hancock does the best he can with what’s he’s given, but what he’s given isn’t particularly amazing.
The other two actors fare better. Washington’s natural charisma comes into play well, but it doesn’t feel like anything new. Malek feels a little miscast in the movie at first – his attitude gives off sinister, forced vibes in the beginning, but he loosens up enough as the movie goes on. One of the best moments between the two actors involves them in a car, Malek fighting sleep while Washington (who is used to stakeouts) has some fun taking shots at Malek’s inexperience. The dynamic between the two is nice but doesn’t do enough to elevate the film.
The editing in this movie is atrocious – it is completely over-edited. It felt like the editor was forced to put one shot from every camera setup in the movie, and as a result the rhythm is completely disjointed. I doubt there’s a single moment when the camera holds for more than two or three seconds before it cutting to either another setup, reaction shot, flashback, point of view shot, or insert for no reason. One person will start a sentence in one angle and finishes it on a different angle of themselves in another shot. The movie needed more room to breathe, if only to allow Jonathan Schwartzman’s relatively beautiful cinematography to be appreciated. The photography basks in fog machines and low key lighting to set a mood, none of which you can appreciate as the film is cut to shreds.
The music is typical Thomas Newman. There are a lot of 50’s and 60’s style throwbacks, each of which involved “the Guy”, as if it is a meta-textual reference to catching the bad guy in the movie. There are small moments like this, but for the most part the movie is without humor, without purpose, and ultimately without engagement. Anything interesting it does is squandered on its own poor execution. In a movie all about the little things, it seems they missed the big picture.
