The Little Things

I had really high expectations for The Little Things because it features three Academy Award winners: Denzel Washington, Rami Malek, and Jared Leto.  I saw it last night and, while there are a few little things that keep it from being great, I enjoyed it.  Joe "Deke" Deacon (Washington), a deputy sheriff in Kern County, California, is sent to Los Angeles to retrieve some evidence and meets Sgt. Jim Baxter (Malek), the lead detective on a high profile investigation of a serial killer.  Baxter asks Deke, once a rising star in the LASD, to accompany him to the crime scene of the latest victim.  Deke is struck by the similarity to an unsolved crime that he worked during his time in L.A. which caused him to lose his marriage, his health, and his job and has obsessed him ever since.  He takes a leave of absence from Kern County to unofficially assist Baxter in the investigation and they come to suspect Albert Sparma (Leto) who may or may not be guilty.  They bring Sparma in for questioning and, even though he taunts them, they have to release him because they don't have enough evidence.  Baxter is convinced Sparma is guilty and goes to great lengths, including some that are unorthodox, to tail him.  Eventually Deke fears that Baxter will suffer his same fate if he doesn't solve the case.  This is a moody and atmospheric crime thriller that focuses more on the psychological effects of the crime on the detectives rather than on trying to solve the crime (comparisons to Seven, which is much better in my opinion, are inevitable).  It loses focus in the second act but I found the twist at the end to be incredibly intriguing.  The characters are a bit underdeveloped but all three actors give riveting performances and the back-and-forth between Malek as a young and brash detective and Washington as his world-weary mentor is very compelling while Leto is suitably creepy as a disheveled psychopath (albeit one we have seen him play before).  The little things that detract from this movie don't keep it from being entertaining and I recommend it to fans of the genre.