old school component to the storytelling that recalls “Seven” as well as providing a vision of Baxter’s future in the emotionally devastated Deacon. Of course, there’s an inherent new school vs. The first third of “The Little Things” has an effective procedural quality as Baxter feels out whether or not the legendary Joe Deacon can help him solve the case of his life. It’s not long before they discover that a loner named Albert Sparma ( Jared Leto) is their likely suspect, and “The Little Things” becomes a cat and mouse game between the two detectives and the creepiest guy in L.A., a disturbing character who appears to get off on playing games with the cops. He’s haunted and unwanted by his former colleagues, including Captain Carl Farris ( Terry Kinney) and Detective Sal Rizoli ( Chris Bauer), but Deke gets sucked back into that which nearly destroyed him when he ends up helping his replacement, Jim Baxter ( Rami Malek) with the serial killer case that’s terrifying the city. It’s revealed that ‘Deke’ lost his marriage, had a heart attack, and had to leave town because of a particularly brutal case that he couldn't solve. Our story unfolds in 1990 for little reason other than proximity to The Night Stalker case, which still hangs in the air when a new serial killer emerges in the City of Angels (and "The Little Things" was reportedly initially written a quarter-century ago, which could explain why it feels so much like the potboilers of that era). cop who now works in Bakersfield, living alone on the edge of society. Joe Deacon (Washington) is a disgraced former L.A.
cinematography, and an effective score, but one could say that it’s the little things that hold it back. Some of the major stuff here works, including a performance from Washington that’s better than the movie around it (yet again), some striking L.A. It’s a movie that's constantly on the verge of developing into something as intense and haunting as writer/director John Lee Hancock wants it to be, but it never achieves its goals, especially in its final half-hour.
That’s part of what makes “The Little Things” feel dated, although the way it recalls better films with similar themes, particularly David Fincher’s “ Seven,” does it no favors too. In recent years, this genre has largely become the product of television, as shows like “True Detective” and “Mindhunter” have taken on stories of men haunted by the crimes they investigate.
In the wake of the success of “ The Silence of the Lambs,” there seemed to be a dark, brooding thriller adaptation every week with titles like “ Kiss the Girls” and “ The Bone Collector,” and it felt like half of them starred Denzel Washington. Movies like “The Little Things” feel like a vanishing breed.
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