Denzel
Washington plays Joe Deacon, a former Los Angeles homicide detective turned
small-town deputy. When a minor evidence issue takes him back to Los Angeles,
he crosses paths with a murder investigation led by Jim Baxter (Rami Malek).
That killing looks a lot like a series of unsolved murders that led to Deacon
nearly dying of a heart attack years earlier.
Deacon
sticks around to help, and the trail eventually leads them to a creepy
repairman (Jared Leto). Some circumstantial evidence points to the repairman's
guilt, but there's also a chance that he's simply a weirdo crank (if this were
set in 2020 instead of 1990, he would be an internet troll).
Even
though the film is centered around a serial-killer mystery, The Little
Things is not a thriller in the vein of Silence of the Lambs or Seven.
There are a few suspenseful moments, but it's more of a character study.
Washington gives a strong performance in the lead. Even in the moments when he
flashes his movie-star smile and turns on the charm, Washington still radiates
sadness here.
There
are some slow stretches in the film's 129-minute running time and a few clichéd
moments. But Hancock's script pulls off the difficult task of embracing
ambiguity without feeling like a copout. It's worth a look.
***
Stars (Out of Four)
Photo by Owen Lystrup on Unsplash
