The Little Things

It's 1990 southern California. A young female motorist is harassed by a mysterious muscle car. L.A. Sheriff's Department homicide detective Jim Baxter (Rami Malek) investigates a murder. Kern County deputy sheriff Joe "Deke" Deacon (Denzel Washington) happens to be in town to retrieve evidence for another case. He's a former detective from LASD but left after some unspecified incident. He finds Jim's case to be connected to his former case. The two starts to suspect Albert Sparma (Jared Leto) who drives a muscle car to be a serial killer.

This is trying to be Se7en and True Detective and other high concept crime mystery with a twist. It's interesting in some aspects but falters in others. First and foremost, this is not a whodunnit. The movie piles on all the suspicion on Sparma with only a small wink at the fingerprint guy. Quite frankly, it's either Sparma or not Sparma. Anyone else would be meaningless anyways. There is some hope of turning this into a character study of these three people. That's a 50/50 proposition in this case. Denzel can sleepwalk through this role and I'm not saying that he is. I'm also not saying that he isn't. With Rami and Jared, the film has two of the most outlier actors around. It may be one too many. They are pushing very hard and at times, they push the movie over the edge. Finally, I have issues with the final confrontation. There are problems with it and I don't like it. Nevertheless, I still like the three actors and it's always interesting to see them go to work.

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

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.

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.

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.