The Little Things Movie Review

By: Justin Hopkins

Spoiler Warning

Finally, a new movie for me to sink my teeth into. We got The Little Things, with a star cast of Denzel Washington and Rami Malek.. and Jared Leto is there too. While, I would have liked to saw I went in more excited, being the first new movie of 2021 and one viewing of the trailer was enough to get me interested enough. The onslaught of unskippable trailers on YouTube was a bit much, but I was determined to enjoy myself when I sat down to watch it. So, lets dive in and discuss The Little Things, shall we.

Synopsys

The movie kicks us off with a woman just managing to escape from an unknown stalker, by waving down a truck and we jump to one Joe Deacon, a small town deputy who is sent to L.A to pick up evident for a Preliminary Case the next day, only he can’t get the evidence without a signature from Homicide, but they won’t give it to him till tomorrow because they are running a test on it. While he doesn’t seem to be on good terms with the chief, he does have friends who are happy to see him. Once upon a time, he was a hot shot detective who had the highest clearance rate of solved cases, and when Jimmy learns who it is, brings him along to a fresh murder seen, of a Serial Killer that he is struggling to get anything on. During the search, Deacon finds the lookout spot the Killer used and with the condition was in, caused a flashback to a case he once worked that mirrored the current case. When Jimmy drops him back off, they agree to meet for breakfast if he is still there and we jump to Ruth Rathsburn jogging with someone and she goes off alone to go home and a car follows her down the road and her parents report her missing the next day. Which becomes a driving force for Jimmy, why Joe has found a suspect in Albert Sparma. A shady repairman, who is a self proclaimed Crime Buff, who they are determined is the killer and desperately try to prove it to save Ruth and that is where i will leave it for now.

Review

Spoilers ahead. Don’t go on if you want to watch it.

This is a pretty hard movie to put into words and actually going to start with the acting, which I thought were all pretty solid, but aren’t handled well. Denzel is Denzel, he makes the smallest bits feel important and he does great as Joe Deacon. Kind of wish we got more time with Rami Malek. He does good as Jimmy, but a lot of times feels forced. Don’t feel like there is a close enough connection between him and Deacon by the end. I actually did like Jared Leto portrayal of Albert. The guy does creepy well and while it for me it tends to miss a lot, it fits well here. Just wish the story was handled a little better.

They do a good job at building tension and putting pressure on Jimmy, with him wanting to save Ruth and Joe being haunted by his memories. Telling the story of dangers of obsession, but that is kind of where my first issue arises. Yeah, it can be bad getting to focused on this work. Taking nothing away from the stress a detective goes through, but the clock is ticking on Ruth. Kind of expecting Jimmy to be wrapping his mind around it, for at least the first few days to try and save her life and while he shouldn’t be hyper focused on one suspect. The leads are pointing at Albert, who is doing nothing to take the light off him and while I could see him being more laxed on the rules to save Ruth, but not enough for what he will be okay with by the end. I get that would upend his life, but that is not his motivating factor throughout. He wants to give voices to his victims, even if it means taking responsibility for this.

Alright, lets break down the ending, because this has some glaring issues. I get that it isn’t suppose to be a good ending, but they took it from a morbid and dire one. The killer has effectively gotten away. Jimmy killed Albert, who they set up to question whether or not he did it or not. Him and Joe covered it up. Leaving the FBI to chase a ghost and at the very least, will never find Ruth and at it’s worse, murder free to continue killing. If they ended it there, it would be fine, but we didn’t. He sent Jimmy a braid to pass as Ruth’s and give him peace of mind that he did at least kill the right guy. Something that he really does not deserve and Joe once again to stall a murder case and presented in good light for doing so. We should end with a broken and lost Jimmy, because that is the dire ending. Two broken cops who know there is no fixing this. Which would at least be in line with what they are trying to say. At least end with a trapped or dead Ruth to really suck the air out of you.

If you are into crime drama’s and mysteries. You might find something enjoyable here, but this movie really didn’t do anything for me. Had a good premise, with some big name stars but that was about it. Tries way to hard to build up the ending that ends up just falling apart. Final Grade – D

As always, I hope you enjoyed and…

Thank You For Reading.

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