Mr. Movie: “The Little Things” is a nice thriller with a twist ending

The Little Things

“The Little Things” is a whodunnit. Like the detectives played by Denzel Washington and Rami Malek, you think you know who has murdered all those women. All that’s missing is one little piece.

Or to quote Washington’s Joe Deacon, it comes down to the little things.

It’s 1990s Los Angeles. A serial killer is on the loose. Malek’s Jim Baxter is the super sleuth determined to bring him to justice. Washington’s Deacon used to be the department’s superstar. When things went south for him, he gave up the big time and works in a small cop shop in Bakersfield, many miles away from the city’s glittering lights.

While in the city to collect evidence on a murder case in his jurisdiction, Deacon notices similarities between a case he was unable to solve and Baxter’s. That drags him into the investigation.

The suspect is played by Oscar and Golden Globe winner, Jared Leto (“Dallas Buyers Club”).

This is vintage Washington. He’s a master of the low-key character and as he’s aged, Washington’s characters have grown with him. Deacon has wisdom combined with guile. Those attributes make him a formidable force and a reluctant mentor to his younger colleague.

It doesn’t hurt to have a villain of Leto’s caliber. Leto’s stringy, greasy long hair and disgusting countenance turn his Albert Sparma into personified slime. The performance is the best of the three actors. Without out it, “The Little Things” is a lot, not a little, less interesting.

Of the three, Malek is the least entertaining and the least believable. His facial features are perfect for doing Oscar and Golden Globe-winning work as Freddy Mercury and he’s geeky enough looking to make his “Mr. Robot” character believable. A detective managing a major murder case isn’t quite as believable.

“The Little Things” is written and directed by John Lee Hancock. As his exemplary directing in “The Blind Side,” “Saving Mr. Banks” and “The Rookie” demonstrate, Hancock is the consummate storyteller.

Though it’s a rather long, and sometimes convoluted, story, Hancock keeps things moving. When downtime is needed to punctuate the story, he slows things down. If nail-biting tension is called for, Hancock can create it with the best of them.

That — and a disturbing and very uncomfortable climax — gives “The Little Things” the balance needed to make it a very good thriller. It also doesn’t hurt to be able to call on three incredible actors who bring it home scene after scene after scene.

This is also a case where the little things matter.

▪ Rated R for mature themes, violence and language. It can be seen on view on demand at a number of different sites.

▪ Rating: 4 out of 5

Little Fish

Imagine this. Something odd begins to happen. People start losing their memory and forget who they are and just about everything else. They wander the streets lost and confused. And no, this is not because their noses are buried in their smartphones and they quit noticing anything going on around them.

In the case of “Little Fish” the disease is a pandemic called Neuroinflammatory Affliction (NIA) and it causes people to lose their memories. Eventually they forget everything about themselves, their loved ones and their lives.

The movie was filmed in 2019 and the NIA pandemic is set in 2021. Due to a twist of fate, and good fortune for the producers, the movie’s pandemic coincides with our real deal. As we all know, in early 2020 COVID slammed into the planet and plagues us still.

So COVID makes the movie seem almost prophetic. Worrisomely so.

While the movie’s disease isn’t close to COVID, the comparisons come automatically and in rapid fire. Director Chad Hartigan urges you to stop the comparisons. He agrees that while NIA doesn’t turn people into zombies or anything like that, when you think about it, the total, and forever, loss of memory is very frightening.

Terrifying in its totality.

Hartigan says frightening or not, “Little Fish” is not a horror movie. It is a love story based on a really short, short story written by Aja Gabel. Screenwriter Mattson Tomlin reportedly went through every line of the story to come up with a 90-plus minute script.

Considering the story limits, he did a great job. Tomlin — by the way — is the scriptwriter for the next Batman film, “The Batman.” It’s going to star Robert Pattinson as Bruce Wayne.

Olivia Cooke (“Ready Player One”) is Emma. She’s in love with Jude who is played by “Unbroken’s” Jack O’Connell. They are in love, married and very happy. Surviving one of them getting the disease is the film’s plot.

Both actors give exceptional performances considering the extremely limited story.

That said, and when you take Hartigan’s advice, and look at “Little Fish” as a love story, is the film as interesting? Not really. Ironically, it is a pretty good almost apocalyptic movie.

Equally, ironically, it’s one where the love story gets in the way.

▪ Not rated but probably a hard PG-13 or a light R. It can be seen on Amazon’s Prime Video.

▪ Rating: 3 out of 5

Malcolm & Marie

“Malcolm & Marie” fits in the “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof,” “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf” and “The War of the Roses” film category. In this case, it’s two people in the throes of a dying and troubled relationship.

John David Washington (“Tenet,” “BlacKkKlansman”) is Malcolm. He’s a filmmaker whose movie just had its premiere. Malcolm and his lady love, Marie have just returned from the event. She’s wonderfully done by Zendaya (“Spider Man: Far From Home,” “The Greatest Showman”). His problem? In his rambling thank you to all involved in the movie, Malcolm leaves Marie out.

Uh oh.

From that point on the two argue about her being left out, his movie and the inspiration for the film, the reviews and the take of critics on the movie, their relationship, her former addictions, sex and — oddly — eating. Malcolm wants mac and cheese after they return.

Ultimately, this is a bad relationship movie. The relationship is bad and — in spite of some great acting by Washington and Zendaya — the movie is also bad. At least it is in my book.

That said, I’ve never liked this genre of movie.

The acting in afore mentioned films — and in Malcolm & Marie — is as good as acting gets. But who wants to watch a couple of hours of two people ripping their souls apart?

Some of you. Not me.

▪ Rated R for language including lots of F-bombs. It can be streamed on Netflix.

▪ Rating: 2 1/2 out of 5.

This story was originally published February 4, 2021 at 7:09 PM with the headline "Mr. Movie: “The Little Things” is a nice thriller with a twist ending."