The Little Things leaves bigger questions
New Denzel Washington movie leaves more to the imagination than necessary
The Little Things was released on Jan. 29 in the United States, and grossed over 4.8 million its first weekend.
With popular Academy Award-winning names such as Denzel Washington, Rami Malek, and Jared Leto, you would think “The Little Things”, directed by John Lee Hancock, would knock it out of the park. Unfortunately, I, and many who saw it, left theaters more confused than when they came in.
The film follows Deputy Sheriff Deke Deacon (Washington) helping Sergeant Baxter (Malek) find the perpetrator of the murders of multiple women, one of these suspects being Albert Sparma (Leto). With Baxter’s near clean record on the line and Deacon’s unfinished business from this case, the story was definitely something worth the production.
While the concept of the film was most certainly interesting, the execution was a different story. Throughout the whole film you were waiting for some kind of twist that finally made the move interesting. The only twist this movie had was that there wasn’t one. Even though it did leave quite the imaginative effect, the movie was entirely predictable with what was shown.
The ending of the film not only confusing, but anger-inducing angry; given the genre and nature of the film, there were questions that needed to be answered, but weren’t. While this is probably what the film makers were going for, this was not fitting for the movie due to its genre and overall setup.
The execution of this story was not well done, but something can definitely be said about the acting in this film. Malek’s performance made it difficult to look away, given how invested you were in his character’s well-being and outcome. Despite that, not even the acting in this film could save it entirely.
The Little Things left me disappointed. The tickets were purchased in hopes of walking out with a shocked look on my face that you only get with major plot twists that this movie was hyped for. Its predictability inherently made it like every other crime movie, and outside of the acting, it wasn’t very memorable. While I myself didn’t find the film to be all that it was made out to look like, it is still worth a watch for the criminal aspect—not the mystery.
Rating: 5/10
