Review of The Little Things, directed by John Lee Hancock

There was a solid period of time where I had nothing to do. I dubbed this period as my funemployment era, as I was waiting for an opportunity that was promised to me and it fell through. Never put all of your eggs in one basket is what I learned during this little time frame, but I kind of realized I had more time to catch up on my blog.

This blog is my little diary of movie, book, television, and theater reviews. I have thousands of content I want to get through in my life, and I realized this was the perfect time to sit down and watch some of it. I could also use this opportunity for travel, and I did do that a little bit.

I never had heard of The Little Things if we’re going to be honest. It was not on my to-watch list, and, as I just mentioned, I had no idea it existed. But when I opened Netflix one day it was one the recommended tab.

The synopsis seemed interested enough, and I was down to watch it. It’s not like I had much else to do then, so I pressed play and watched it all the way through.

Let’s get into the review—I don’t want to ramble too much!

Two detectives get wrapped up in a serial killer’s spree, but can’t figure out who the culprit is.

This movie sets the scene immediately, in 1990, a young girl is driving alone on the highway. She notices there’s someone following her, so she pulls into the closest gas station. But when she finds out it’s closed, the guy who was following her pursues her; she manages to barely escape after running into a truck driver on the road, and the pursuer flees.

We then move into the present day. Deke Deacon, a Deputy Sheriff with Kern County, is told to go to the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department. Someone was murdered recently, and he needs to pick up the evidence. When he gets there though, he goes with detective Jimmy Baxter to another murder. It’s there Deke realizes that this murder is similar to a serial killer he never caught.

That same night, a woman is followed in her neighborhood while jogging and disappears. We saw a car following behind her, so it might be the same gay. Jimmy is told that Deacon was so obsessive over his cases that he had a heart attack and ruined his marriage, but Deacon shows up to Jimmy’s case anyways and says he’s going to help.

The police find another victim under a bridge. Jimmy puts the pieces together and realizes that these murders have a common thread: these women were prostitutes and the killer stabbed them to death. Deke has a suspicious person on his radar: a repair store man named Albert. He starts following the guy, but when Albert is brought in, he mocks the detectives.

He’s let go after Deke loses his cool. The girl from the beginning is brought in to be interviewed, but can no longer be considered reliable after seeing Albert in handcuffs. But it turns out the FBI is taking over the case soon, which means that Jimmy and Deke have less time than expected.

When Albert’s fingerprint doesn’t exactly match the killers, they decide to search his apartment illegally. That doesn’t work either though, but turns out the guy has a police scanner. It tells all the other cops an officer is down at the apartment, and Deke gets out as cops swarm the place. Turns out Albert was watching them the entire time.

Jimmy trails him next later, and he has a forceful chat with Albert. Albert offers to show where he hid the body, and Jimmy agrees. Deke follows, and the group is led to the desert. Albert tells Jimmy to start digging, but when he digs multiple holes, Albert makes fun of the scenario, leading Jimmy to snap and attack him with the shovel.

Albert dies from that, and we learn through a flashback that Deke killed a survivor of his last murder case by accident. It was covered up. Deke then tells Jimmy to bury Albert in the desert, but when he comes back the next day, he finds Jimmy still digging in the desert for victims.

He tells Jimmy he needs to move on or it will destroy his life; he knows from experience. Jimmy goes home, and later on receives an envelope from Deke. Inside is a red barrette, which the woman who went jogging was wearing when she went missing. Deke burns the evidence he gathered in the apartment, including a pack of red barrettes. Turns out he probably sent those to give Jimmy mental peace.

Overall Thoughts

To me, this was just an okay movie. It’s very much about the journey of getting to the end, and the psychological impacts of chasing a serial killer and failing for the police officers and detectives in charge of the case.

If you’re not expecting that and want more thriller elements, you’re not getting it. We see some of the victims throughout, but there never is any actual closure for what went down throughout the movie. I could see that driving some people mad in the end.

I thought some of the dialogue was a little bit clunky and forced at times, although I was interested in what the movie had to say. The acting was also good, although Jared Leto was just being Jared Leto the entire time. He was the one I was least interested in of the three characters, and kind of just exists as a scapegoat.

We don’t know if he actually did it. Evidence may suggest that one of the guys at the auto shop did do it though, as the same actor was used for the killer as one of the guys seen working at the shop.

Go watch it if you’re interested and haven’t seen it. If not, maybe don’t bother.

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