Os Pequenos Vestígios

I enjoyed this movie. From the start I was enthralled by Denzel's character, he is a flawed man and he is dealing with the consequences of his choices. Rami Malek is masterful as a "by the book" cop working a seemingly endless string of predatory murders. They team up and are forced to make the most difficult decision a public servant has to make. This movie questions the essence of justice and the law.

The movie is interesting but I still think they could have done better scenes and improved the story line with a better ending.. However, as long Denzel is the leading actor you will never regret watching the movie

"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.

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.

There will never be another Se7en and, although this may appear similar, it is very different.

Where as Se7en is all about the crime and the killer this is more concerned with the detectives hunting the killer.

We meet Denzil as a lowly cop sent on an errand to the town where he used to be a respected detective.

It is clear something happened here that put a downward trajectory on his career.

Almost by accident he gets pulled in to the hunt for a vicious serial killer.

The crimes are not particularly clever of interesting or are the suspects.

This is all about the detectives.

This is well made and produced, the leads have a sickly pallor about them that reinforces the desperate state of the investigation.

There is nothing particularly different about this movie and it is quite low on excitement.

But the characters are engaging and I like watching Denzil in the detective roles where he gets to toy with people.

As things ramp up near the end it feels like the writers are in a bit of a corner and the film takes a turn that is unexpected, yet still not very exciting.

This sets up for a thought provoking ending.

This is well made and I did enjoy it - I just wanted it to be more.

Don't expect much action or thrills.