Movie Review: The Little Things

 

HBO's True Detective managed to revitalize the appetite for noir-tinged police procedurals and after 3 seasons of that series, Warner Brothers decided to bring one of these stories to the cinematic medium with The Little Things. Although John Lee Hancock's script-who also directed-isn't nearly sharp enough to make all the ambiguity present in the story work to the fullest extent and the wonky, cut-happy editing that feels like it was done by a first year film student who hadn't quite figured to how use the software yet is severely distracting at times, The Little Things is a perfectly functional, moody meditation on homicide detectives that let their unsolved cases consume them. 

Hancock establishes the type of sleazy atmosphere where morally dubious characters on both sides of the badge constantly blur the lines between good and evil, the primary actors (Denzel Washington, Rami Malek, Jared Leto) all live up to their sterling reputations with solid performances (particularly Leto-who shines as a creepy appliance repairman that Washington and Malek's characters believe is the top suspect in the serial murder case they're investigating) and the final act-while occasionally clumsy-ultimately does a good job of illustrating the perpetual psychological torture that plagues these cops when a case reaches a dead end and how that unnerving obsession can have unintended permanent consequences. While it's not likely that very many people are going to peg it as this generation's Seven or Prisoners, The Little Things remains a solid entry in a relic of a genre that we rarely see explored in this day and age.      

Grade: B