The Little Things

"It's the little things that get you caught," Deke, played by Denzel Washington, tells Rami Malek's character Jimmy. "It's the little things that rip you apart." Unfortunately, I found that second sentiment particularly resonant as I watched "The Little Things."

"The Little Things" had a phenomenal trailer, very nuanced, well lit, choreographed, acted, and most importantly, well edited. Of course, the trailer was only two minutes long. How does the actual film, which is over two hours long, compare? Surely any movie that expands on the technical prowess and acting chops that the trailer set up will be fantastic! The movie does expand on all of the pieces the trailer introduced - in doing so, "The Little Things" takes one step forward, and two steps back. Admittedly, the movie looks good visually; the cinematography is appropriately moody, with dim lighting for the majority of the running time that casts an ominous shadow over its characters.

The acting, too, is incredible. I've seen mixed reviews on Rami Malek's acting in this movie, but I thought he was great, if a little mumbly, which did make it hard to understand him (thank you subtitles). Denzel Washington is, as always, great. He puts on a quiet performance here that takes its time with viewers - you can tell there's something below this character that's waiting to bubble up. Denzel is a professional, and he acts like one; every word out of his mouth feels believable, every action he takes feels realistic for his character. Watching him and Malik collaborate to catch a killer is truly entertaining - Deke sucks Jimmy into his obsessive mindset, and it's interesting watching both of them fall deeper into the rabbit hole they've dug for themselves.

Jared Leto as the might be, might not be killer is fascinating. Now granted, I may be biased because I like Jared Leto, but I thought he was pretty good in the role. His character was perfectly bizarre, always keeping Deke and Jimmy on their toes. Sure, Jared's character may act like a complete weirdo, but is he a killer? The movie keeps you, and its characters, guessing, which I appreciated. The story, which obviously focuses on these three characters, is elevated by the amazing performances. In a better film, I could see some serious Oscar contenders.

Yes, I did say "in a better film," because "The Little Things" does start to fall flat. Let's talk about the editing - did Olivier Megaton secretly direct this? Who decided on the editing style of this movie? There were a distracting amount of cuts in practically every single scene - for example, a scene where Denzel says goodbye to his dog before getting in his car has probably upwards of ten cuts. Similarly, a scene where Deke and Jimmy are eating breakfast has probably 20 cuts. There is rapid fire editing at play here, and I'm not sure the reason why. The film would've greatly benefited from a slow and steady editing style that allowed the camera to linger on its scenes and characters; instead, we get something akin to Paul Greengrass, which definitely doesn't fit the tone of the movie.

Because of that, tonally, the movie is inconsistent. The pace feels all over the place, with the film only picking up when Jared Leto's character comes in the picture. Unfortunately, he starts to play a major role about an hour or more into the movie, which means you spend a majority of this film's length focusing on nothing really memorable. Additionally, the movie felt too short, even though it was over two hours long. There had to be scenes cut out of here, perhaps even scenes that further expanded as to why Deke and Jimmy were so obsessed over Jared Leto's character. It seems like they pick him as a suspect out of thin air; as you hear in the trailer, they find him suspicious because his car has high mileage. That's it? After Deke discovers this, they seem laser focused on nailing Leto's character, and I was wondering if I somehow missed another clue or piece of evidence that made Deke and Jimmy get so fixated.

I did really enjoy the ending and overall message of the movie - this is definitely not a crowd-pleaser, and I commend the so different approach that the movie took. However, I really can't excuse the awful editing and the stagnant pace. In a better movie, the first hour would've been the first 30 minutes, with Leto's character being introduced early to build the tension and obsession of Jimmy and Deke. However, because "The Little Things" spends its first hour on nothing too significant, by the time Jared's character is finally introduced you'll wonder what the movie can possibly pull out of its hat to keep you interested now that it's almost over. "The Little Things" is a film with great performances and a really interesting premise that is brought way down by its editing, pacing, and tonal inconsistency. It's a perfectly watchable film, but with this cast, it should've been much better than it ends up being.

Early in the movie he was heading to LA, and told his dog he would be back that night. Then he didn't and stayed in LA without any call home to care for the dog.

Sorry, I know that probably isn't a big deal to anyone but to some crazy pet owners, but it was a distraction.

Please click yes if you agree.

A movie can leave feeling any number of ways-happy, sad, amazed, provoked, whatever-but the common denominator of good ones is that when the lights go up, you feel satisfied; it was worth the trip. I didn't fee that way when this one ended. Yes, it made its point: a detective working a murder case can become obsessed; it's the burden of responsibility, seeking justice, retribution, vengeance-choose your word-for the victim. And the point of the story is the old proverb: "Before you set out on a journey of revenge, dig two graves" (or something like that). That's all well and good, but IMO, this story melted away in the last 30 minutes. With some hard work on the script and more inventiveness, it could have been so much more.

People are so used to gun fights and car chases when it comes to detective stories these days. Especially in movies. This was a deep dive into how frustrating real police work can be. A lot of fumbling around in the dark, chasing your tails, being obstructed by the very law you swear to uphold. The real question the movie poses is how far are you willing to go in order to catch a killer?

The Little Things - 7/10

The little things obviously took a lot of inspiration from other films; everybody points out that it was inspired by David Fincher's Se7en but I was equally reminded of Nolan's Insomnia as well. That being said, that does not mean that this film doesn't have anything new to offer. Although it does follow some familiar tropes and storylines, it still is original enough to offer something new. Added to that is some fantastic acting from all three leads.

Most of the time when you have multiple great actors all vying for an Oscar nomination in a single movie it leads to some dramatic overacting, in this case all three performances are subtle, subdued, understated yet still brilliant. The mystery in this film is fairly obvious, the trailer shows you everything you need to know. But with that in mind, the mystery wasn't really the focal point of this story in my opinion. The focus rather was on the characters and their development and about who they are as characters. In my mind the characters are written very well, not that they're perfect but they're good.

I think there was some sloppy editing, sloppy writing, and inconsistent directing but nothing worthy of a 54% that they've received from Metacritic. I'm not saying it's the next big classic film or anything like that, no not at all. But I think that this film fully deserves a seven that I've given it. Not a classic, but definitely worth a watch if you enjoy dark films like seven, insomnia, and many more.