Hey everyone! I have a quick review for you today of the new film from Warner Bros entitled The Little Things. This is a new police crime thriller directed by John Lee Hancock and starring Denzel Washington, Rami Malek and Jared Leto. With such an all-star cast you’d think The Little Things would be a slam dunk but it ends up being thoroughly average and bland.

Washington plays Duke a small town sheriff who returns to the big city to get some evidence for his boss only to be brought back into a serial killer investigation by Malek’s young officer Jimmy Baxter. Duke is known as a legendary detective but something in his past made him give up on the career. I wonder if this new case will unearth some of his daemons from the past? No spoilers but it might just happen.

Jared Leto plays the serial killer of the film and he’s a  little over-the-top but for the most part he’s fine. Malek does a good job with what he is given but his character doesn’t always make sense. Especially towards the end I was puzzled by his character’s choices.

Again, with no spoilers, the ending, is difficult to predict  so some people will like that but it didn’t all come together or feel believable. In fairness, this type of police procedural is not my favorite to begin with but it didn’t win me over. Even Denzel’s performance, while decent, feels a little phoned in compared to what we know he can do in films like Hurricane, Glory or Malcolm X

However, the biggest problem with The Lille Things is its pacing at 127 minutes the story really drags and I struggled to stay engaged. I actually think edited for TV it might work better and be a little snappier. That’s the only way I’d recommend it is as a filler movie on a Saturday night on TBS. It’s fine for that but nothing to go to the theater in covid to see or to watch on HBO Max right away.

5 out of 10

Frown Worthy