Deke (Denzel Washington), a burnt-out Kern County, CA deputy sheriff teams up with Baxter (Rami Malek), a crack LASD detective, to nab a serial killer. Deke's nose for the "little things" proves eerily accurate, but his willingness to circumvent the rules embroils Baxter in a soul-shattering dilemma. Meanwhile, Deke must wrestle with a dark secret from his past.... (Full plot summary below)
Enjoy FREE movies and series with your Prime (USA) subscription or when you start a 30-day free trial!
Deke (Denzel Washington), a burnt-out Kern County, CA deputy sheriff teams up with Baxter (Rami Malek), a crack LASD detective, to nab a serial killer. Deke's nose for the "little things" proves eerily accurate, but his willingness to circumvent the rules embroils Baxter in a soul-shattering dilemma. Meanwhile, Deke must wrestle with a dark secret from his past.
Leave your thoughts about The Little Things.
| Chicago Sun-TimesRichard RoeperMalek and Washington are electric together in this atmospheric, moody thriller that will keep you guessing and on the edge of the proverbial seat (or living room sofa). You won’t be able to shake this one off for a very long time. |
| Total FilmJames MottramLed by a trio of Oscar winners knocking it out of the park, The Little Things is a murky must-see. |
| ReelViewsJames BerardinelliAs a character study, The Little Things works. As a thriller, it’s a mixed bag and individual preferences will determine whether to classify the resolution as exhilarating or annoying. |
| ABCPeter TraversDespite widening gaps of logic in its slow-burn mystery plot, this twisty, killer-on-the-loose, dark-night-of-the-soul thriller features top turns from Denzel Washington and Rami Malek as L.A. cops chasing a psycho, played by a scary and diabolically funny Jared Leto. |
| San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalleThough he crafts a story worthy of a thriller, Hancock’s main concerns here are twofold: the type of personality drawn to this kind of police work, and the effect this work has on them. |
| The PlaylistRodrigo PerezEspecially in its upending, pivoting-away-from-crime norms, morally ambiguous ending, Hancock’s picture reveals itself to have much more on its mind than expected, and becomes a thoughtful meditation on the rigors of police work and the psychic toll that it takes on the soul. |
| IndieWireDavid EhrlichThe Little Things is pulpy and ridiculous and requires some major suspension of belief, but — if you didn’t know any better — you might even say it’s beautiful. |
| Entertainment WeeklyLeah GreenblattIn the absence of a clean ending, then, what's left is the familiar intrigue of smart men squinting dolefully at distant horizons and bloodied crime scenes, an ocean of bottled-up feeling, and a movie that takes a good half of its secrets to the grave. |
| Los Angeles TimesJustin ChangThe Little Things has a couple of hair-raising scenes and a few nifty, low-key twists in store, though little about the overall experience of watching it can really be called surprising. I don’t mean that as a knock. The pleasures and comforts of crime fiction, even with the built-in expectations of suspense and revelation, are not always dependent on novelty. |
| Arizona RepublicBill GoodykoontzIt’s got an interesting structure — it’s not just about catching a killer but also about revealing Deke’s story. But it ultimately suffers for that, the dueling narratives not blending together so much as competing. Of course, you could do worse than watch actors like Washington, Malek and Leto work. But at the end of The Little Things, you feel like you could do better, too. |
