The Little Things (2021)

A series of murders get the attention of a County Deputy Sheriff, a man with a dark past in the police force, and in collaboration with a young detective, they will try to find whoever is behind these crimes.

It is shocking how people even considered comparing it to Seven (1995). The film’s biggest issue is not the cliché opening sequence that makes zero sense. It is not that Denzel Washington and Rami Malek don’t believe in what they signed up for – even though Jared Leto somehow does. It is not even that all three of them are Oscar winners in a film like this. The biggest issue with the film is that the producers put all the effort into getting A-list actors, but then they decided to green-light a boring, formulaic, predictable, flawed Hollywood three-act structure with yawning character and story development that makes you say: “It’s OK for the quarantine”. A film that you stop thinking about the moment the end credits start scrolling down. And once you think the script is the worst thing that happened to The Little Things, the editing makes it a mission to dumb it down even more by explaining everything to you like it’s the first time watching a thriller. Moreover, it fundamentally ruins the film’s pace and rhythm with its discontinuity errors.

I know I sound bitter, but that was not my intention before watching it. But focusing (always) on the film’s intentions, I don’t like it when the audience’s intelligence is undermined. Watching the final cut before exporting it, the filmmakers should have seen that, for an over two-hour film, everything is rushed and said and done in a better and much better way. It is saddening me that, John Lee Hancock, the man behind great films such as The Blind Side (2009) and Saving Mr. Banks (2013) was sitting on the director’s chair.

After pointing out the film’s biggest issue(s), it would be only fair to mention the biggest achievement: Jared Leto’s decent performance. Even though ruined by bad directing and even worse editing, it managed to get a Golden Globe nomination and a nomination from the Screen Actors Guild Awards – the only two nominations the film got. How about that?

To cut the long story short, go ahead and watch it. It is yet another night in with restrictions left, right, and centre. Just don’t have any expectations, as you’ll be severely disappointed.

P.S. I mean… the editing is bad!

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