The Little Things (2021)

 Score: 4 / 5

Deputy sheriff Joe Deacon ("Deke") is summoned back to the City of Angels and back into his own personal hell. A former L.A. cop who had to leave his post after his obsession over a nasty murder case led to a failed marriage and heart attack, Deke returns to help his replacement Jim Baxter with the renewed case. It's a pretty typical role for Denzel Washington, but he delivers an unusually grim performance, adding incredible weight to his hard-boiled world-weariness. Rami Malek's character, a more energetic and eccentric detective, we sense is a little too much like Deke was in the past; we instinctively know that Deke's sad recognition of his new partner stems from the inevitability that Jim will follow too closely in the disgraced cop's footsteps.

Before long -- but almost halfway through the film -- they identify their prime suspect. An intensely creepy loner named Albert Sparma, played of course by Jared Leto, who we instantly believe would stab prostitutes to death around the city. His energy is much like Malek's, and when set against the stolid, pseudo-stoicism of Washington, we are utterly unable to predict which way any scene will go. It could explode, implode, or spiral into something truly mesmerizing, which of course it does. Because unfortunately, Sparma gets off on being a suspect. Is he excited because he thinks he'll get away with his crimes, or is he excited that he's suddenly somebody? This isn't the criminal fame of Chicago's Velma Kelly, but instead something far more insidious, perhaps most disturbing when he finds himself aroused at psychologically toying with Deke during an interrogation. His record indicates that he has falsely confessed to previous crimes, and his obsession with true crime makes him unreliable in more ways than one. 

It's hard, these days, to appreciate movies like this, and it probably won't be remembered as anything important. We've been inundated, in the last two decades or so, with this kind of criminal content. David Fincher's career has been effectively built on it, notably with Se7en, to which The Little Things will no doubt be endlessly compared. And they are similar, no use saying they're not! Writer and director John Lee Hancock wrote this piece in the 90s, and it shows; apart from a few startlingly beautiful visuals and a slow-burning pace that wasn't part of the pre-millennium aesthetic, it could have been filmed in the 90s too. That's not a bad thing, and actually feels more authentic to its 90s-set plot than most movies of its ilk. Except Zodiac, which is just effing phenomenal.

But, because this movie came out now, after a year of near-universal binge-watching of true crime series on streaming services, these characters hit with more potency than they might have at other times. We all feel world-weary and beaten down with our jobs and relationships, and many of us have found solace in the abundance of cold case podcasts and serial killer or sexual predator shows available at our fingertips. Are we so different from someone who obsesses a little too much, and then gets involved with the police, if only to feel important? Given repeated public outcries against the police and dangerously invasive and even violent social media campaigns, I'm not sure we are anymore. Interestingly, the film is determined to pathologize Leto's Sparma, which no doubt helped him garner critical praise for the performance, but I can't help but wonder how creepier the movie might be if the character were more of an average Joe.

In other ways, the movie tries to increase the fear factor, but few stick as effectively. Deke is truly haunted by his old cases, and as he spirals out in his room by night, he sees ghosts of victims staring at him. It's chilling enough, but as we learn nothing about them, we can only take the cinematic shorthand at face value. Similarly, for those viewers deeply determined to have a case fully solved by the end and to fully understand the M.O. and motivations of the criminal(s) involved, this movie will be sure to disappoint. Sometimes the bloody carnage of the killer is what makes a movie work best. But here, as we focus so tightly on the thinly written but deeply acted detectives, the point of the movie is its effect on the "good guys" rather than the violent legacy of its "bad guys." There won't be much closure, because these men will continue to be haunted, and we will be made to suffer with them.

This movie may not have a lot of new things to say about the genre centered on detectives and cops losing their work-life balance and their minds, morals, or both -- which has increasingly moved toward limited series and police procedurals -- but unlike True Detective and countless others, this has the pleasant bonus of being only two hours in length. In the age of binge-watching and streaming, we've begun to rely on overwrought, senselessly endless plots that double back, spin off, and even rebrand before reaching anything close to conclusion. This viewer prefers feature films if only for simplicity's sake. 

And, if you are looking for a thoughtful, patient mystery-thriller, The Little Things gets a lot right. Its bleakly nihilistic view of a dark world that's only getting worse is the stuff of neo-noir wet dreams. Performances that range from grounded and nuanced to terrifyingly flamboyant make the proceedings something like if The Silence of the Lambs crossed with Prisoners, and Washington's best asset here is his usual one: he listens and watches, profoundly, to everyone and everything else in his scene, turning his acting into reacting of the most authentic kind. The moving score, beautiful cinematography, and effective direction make this movie a prime example that movies don't have to be wholly original to be effective, and revamping classic stories and characters can be an entertaining, provocative, and valuable exercise.