The Little Things (2021) * *

Directed by:  John Lee Hancock

Starring:  Denzel Washington, Rami Malek, Jared Leto, Terry Kinney, Michael Hyatt, Chris Bauer

The Little Things wants to be more than a whodunit and more than a study of how searches for serial killers wreaks havoc on not just victims, but the cops who exhaustingly investigate them.  It winds up being more the former than the latter, but in any respect it is unsatisfying.   Those who expect a traditional thriller mixed with the darkness of Seven will be disappointed.   Those who simply want to know who committed the murders will walk away frustrated.   The movie's slow pacing deserves more of a crackling payoff, and we never truly get one.   There are elements of a good movie here, but only mere elements.   We see where The Little Things could have worked, and it never does.  Pity.

Circa Los Angeles 1990, a few years after The Night Stalker killings ravaged the city, there is another serial killer on the loose.   Detective Jimmy Baxter (Malek) is on the case, but as the bodies pile up in gruesome fashion, he has no suspects and no leads.   Help falls into Jimmy's lap in the form of disgraced former detective Joe Deacon (Washington), who left the department under mysterious circumstances years earlier while he was investigating a similar killing spree.   Joe now works in remote Bakersfield in the sheriff's office and is down in Los Angeles to pick up evidence for trial.  Joe's former captain (Kinney) is none too pleased to see him, while others like his former partner Sal (Bauer), who is now Jimmy's partner, is thrilled.   Jimmy at first isn't thrilled to have Joe around to help out, but soon sees value in having an experienced veteran assisting.   Jimmy soon leans on Joe for more help than anticipated, especially when things get really dark after they nab their first suspect in creepy Albert Sparma (Leto).  Unlike most normal people, Albert is overjoyed to be interviewed about the killings and under the police microscope.   He enjoys jerking the cops' chain, but does that make him a killer? 

Jimmy and Joe think Albert is the guy and Albert's behavior suggests he is and he isn't.   Before Albert shows up, The Little Things features grounded performances and a sluggish start.   There is never a sense of urgency or intensity to carry us through.   Leto, who to my never recollection never undergoes a change of clothes in the entire movie, throws the grounded part right out the window.   His overacting and forced menace tips his hand.   A calmer approach, like Kevin Spacey took in Seven, would have been more chilling.   Washington is the steadying voice of experience he has played in numerous films and he's very good at it.   He is incapable of uttering a sentence that doesn't sound like he hasn't been there dozens of times.   Malek gives us an affecting portrait of ambition clashing with desperation.

Frustratingly, The Little Things fails despite having some parts in place for at least a passably entertaining thriller.   The whole, however, is never greater than the sum of its parts, and the last question you should be asking at the end of a whodunit is "who?"   And another would be why you would poke the bear when that person has a gun and a shovel and you are unarmed.