Mark Reviews Movies: THE LITTLE THINGS

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Review by Mark Dujsik | January 28, 2021

Beneath the trappings and procedure of this pretty formulaic story about a police investigation into a serial killer, writer/director John Lee Hancock has some other ideas in mind. The Little Things is ultimately less about who killed multiple women and why than it is about obsession and trying to find some form of certainty within the uncertainty of a cruel, violent world. For as thoughtful as these ideas and as admirable as this goal may be, the movie seems to go out of its way to make sure the plot is as predictable as possible. Meanwhile, the characters eventually start behaving in ways that only make sense if they're trying to push this story in its ultimate direction.

The plot revolves around a series of murders in Los Angeles that have been going on for at least five years. After a creepy prologue (which follows a young woman, driving down an empty highway and being pursued by an unknown figure), we meet Joe "Deke" Deacon (Denzel Washington), a former LA cop who now works for the Sheriff's department in a northern county of California. He has to return to the city, following a long absence (The reason remains a mystery—arguably a more important one for this story than the actual killings—until the end), to retrieve some evidence that might help a prosecution up north.

Mystery really is Hancock's game here. There are plenty of them. There's Deke's mysterious past—an incident or some investigation that resulted in a ruined marriage, a devastated career, a heart attack, and a complete nervous breakdown. Hancock toys around with us a lot in almost every conversation about whatever might have happened to Deke or whatever he might have done.

The precinct captain (played by Terry Kinney) is polite but clearly wants Deke out of his neighborhood as soon as possible. The local coroner (played by Michael Hyatt) cryptically speaks about what Deke did—what they, together, had done. She keeps a strange, unrecognizable trinket to remind her. Deke himself has visions of three women, their pictures hanging from the wall of the dirty hotel room where he stays while waiting for the evidence and unofficially participating in the investigation of a recent murder. The killing appears to be connected to the crime Deke was working on before leaving town.

Indeed, the contemporary murders, the ones in the past that suggest a serial killer, and the actual identity of the murderer all seem like an afterthought for this movie. Hancock goes through the motions, regardless, because one has to establish expectations in order to attempt to shatter them.

The motions, though, seem to win out for the most part. Deke is teamed up with a new ace detective at the precinct. He's Jim Baxter (Rami Malek), a meticulous workaholic who puts his career, hoping to change the world by stopping killers, above his family.

As if that broad characterization isn't enough of a cliché, Baxter, of course, is instantly suspicious of and annoyed by Deke. On Deke's part, the feeling's mutual. The two, inevitably, find common ground and mutual respect as they search a murdered woman's apartment, check out assorted leads, share a belief that they're found the killer of so many women, and go outside the system to make sure they got the right guy.

All of this (the veteran and the new guy working together despite their disagreements, trailing hunches that turn out to be more reliable than hard evidence, and a few—but not too many—scenes of the cops' personal lives), as well as just about everything that follows, fits squarely into a predictable, unchallenging routine. Most of the details of the investigation (who was killed, how these killings are connected, and other seemingly vital pieces of information) are hampered or obscured by Hancock's focus on the puzzle of Deke's past. Considering the direction this story eventually takes, that's important, too, but it too often feels as if the filmmaker is only doling out partial information, just to maintain an air of mystery.

Things undeniably improve with the appearance of a suspect, a creepy guy named Albert (an almost unrecognizable Jared Leto, in an eerily hushed performance). The cops and the possible criminal engage in some mind games, an intensely low-key interrogation, and a few cat-and-mouse sequences. Certainly, all of this is really just more cliché, but the section gives the story, the characters, and whatever thematic goals Hancock possesses a lot more focus than what has come before it.

How all of this resolves—the murders, the cops' suspicions, the suspect's seemingly apparent guilt, the secret of Deke's past in LA—and, for that matter, whether or it not any of it is actually resolved, though, probably shouldn't even be hinted. Hancock is playing the long game here, building up clues and doubts and mysteries, and in the end, we're mainly left wondering if any of them matter. In theory, that makes The Little Things a thriller with a tantalizing core, but in practice, we're really just wondering why any of this matters.

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