The Little Things; Grade: C
This review was written live from my local day job... Well when you have a great amount of time to kill, you write reviews... Grind never stops!
The Little Things tells a story about a County Deputy Sheriff named Joe (Denzel Washington), who is sent to LA to gather up evidence for a case. There has been many murders going on about in this town, by a serial killer who's main target is on young women in their teens or early twenties. Joe is triggered by these murders, as he brings on about some past demons surrounding a case in his past. With experience Joe will work alongside with Jim (Rami Malek) a lead investigator who could surely need the experience Joe has in cases similar to this one.
The Cinematography t'was solid, there are some lovely building shots with great amount of detail to neon lightning, that is reminiscing to this time period. The Score as I can remembered was fine, wasn't bad nor was it great, just didn't play much of a factor to this film. The cast all in all was fine. Denzel Washington playing Joe played a fine performance, Denzel looks pretty relaxed in this role as he’s not given a whole lot to do. Joe as a character is a bit of a mixed bag given the character description, one minute he’s pretty laid back and cracks many random smiles in uncommon situations, then the next minute he’s really a troubled being with the situation at hand and his past. You can’t really get a fair read on him, but in the finale as Joe explains to Jim on how to handle his situation, it makes little sense however not a whole lot. Jim played by Rami Malek t’was disappointing as I felt this was a miscast. Rami does well playing an overly serious detective, however sometimes he can appear unintentionally hilarious in those moments, as you can’t really take him seriously within his facial expressions he makes throughout the entire film. It also doesn’t help Rami that he appears extremely awkward in majority of his scenes, I honestly would’ve casted Kyle Chandler for this role as he has in the past played a good serious cop in the show Bloodline. Jim as a character is fine as written, an overly serious cop getting too caught up in the case as it appears this case gets too much for him, to the point where he loses his cool. Jared Leto playing Albert was honestly the best performance of this entire film, as he was pretty good. Jared plays a pretty good vile weirdo, but gives him the personality he surely needs to be kind of entertaining in a way. I was skeptical about Jared Leto getting nominated for some awards this awards season, but after seeing this film... Ya know I can see why he’s nominated, he’ll definitely be the one thing I will surely remember about this film in a good way.
The Little Things... Felt like something you would see off of Law and Order SVU. Now don’t get me wrong: I really enjoy Law and Order SVU, I even have a dance for the opening theme song, but that’s exactly what kind of vibe I got out of this and it doesn’t quite work as a feature film. The story as written is fine as it had me engaged, my biggest issue is honestly the ending. What appeared to be a clever wrap up, then turns into many question marks that honestly wasn’t needed, making the experience rather confusing. You can’t really tell if justice was made or was justice made for ones mental health, to get over that traumatic experience they just endured. Can’t spoil it but it’s just an ending that really makes you confused on the entire situation, as it honestly messes up the potential recommendable average grading it was going for.
Overall, The Little Things was ok. I guess this would be fine just watching at home on HBO Max than going out your way and see it in a theater, but a much better recommendation would be Se7en. - Mitch Smietana