In the year 2021, it often seems like the only movies that get released are movies associated with a franchise already existing. Very few movies that get released are a new creative entity. John Lee Hancock’s The Little Things (2021) is a crime/thriller film that showcases elements nostalgic to older crime films, while also having its own unique essence. Essentially, the plot is about a detective and a cop teaming up to hunt down a serial killer. With that being said, while the plot can be seen as lacking, it actually allows the characters to shine through with the help of phenomenal acting. The audience experiences the film through the point of view of Joe Deacon (Denzel Washington) and Jimmy Baxter (Rami Malek). These two characters serve as the audience’s eyes and ears of Bakersfield California in the 1990’s as they go about their case, while also taking a mental and emotional toll on the both of them due to the inevitability of catching the serial killer before the FBI gets the case. Ultimately, morality comes into play as these two detectives take drastic steps like breaking and entering a home to investigate everything about the case, including the little things.
At first glance, Joe Deacon (also referred to as Deke) can be seen as a very cheerful Kern County Sheriff. He is seen going about his work with a smile fixed upon his face up until he gets called into his boss’ office. His boss sends him to Los Angeles with an order to a serology lab to pick up evidence for a case. This is, of course, below his rank at work and Joe seems very against going to LA because it had been years since he had left Bakersfield. Upon Joe coming back to LA, the audience soon learns that he used to be a detective and everyone he worked with has moved up in ranks, except him. He moved downward in rank and ultimately worked fifteen years without a promotion. Most of the people there are cold or aloof to him, including Captain Harris (Terry Kinney). Captain Harris goes as far as to mention to Deke how he “might even learn something” from his new replacement, Detective Jimmy Baxter. To make matters even more uncomfortable for Deke, Baxter is now working the ongoing serial killer case that Deke had once worked on, but left because it resulted in him getting a suspension, a divorce, and a triple bypass surgery.
Deke initially doesn't like Baxter. The detective hides information from the press and the public in a press conference and comes across as a hotshot. However, the two start working together once Jimmy realizes that Joe Deacon had previously worked the case. He says to Joe, “Maybe you can even give me a few pointers.” As soon as they start working together, Jimmy works with full gumption toward the case. The work ethic Jimmy displays is very similar to Joe’s own. They both want to solve the case and catch the killer and both have a drive and will to do anything to solve this case.
Later on in the film it becomes clear that they both want to solve the case for different reasons. Jimmy wants to solve the case to do the victims justice. The case clearly hits home to Detective Baxter because all of the victims are young women and he is a father of two little girls. He might even feel that if he can't give these women justice then can he even keep his daughters safe. Jimmy is often seen with his family and it’s clear he’s the type of father that comes home to tuck in his daughters at night. As a present parent, he must feel for the parents of the victims, especially when Baxter visits one of the current victims' families and promises the parents that he’ll find their missing daughter. Ultimately, later in the film Baxter is seen unable to sleep at night and is up at 4 AM, sitting in his backyard, looking distressed as the case eats away at him. This, of course, happens a scene or two after Deke explains saying that the victims are, “Your lifelong responsibility Jimmy. You own them. You own them.”
Joe Deacon, on the other hand, has a drive to close the case because he is haunted by it. Throughout the film, Joe struggles with flashbacks as a result of PTSD from when he was a detective on the case. These glimpses into the past happen whenever he is by himself in his hotel room or working on the case and he sees something triggering. Flo Dunigan (Michael Hyatt), an ex-coworker that works at the morgue, says to him, “Cause brother when I look in your eyes, what I see...it ain’t good.” Flo can put two and two together and understand that Deacon is still scarred by the past; in fact, it is revealed that she is too. He had accidentally shot one of the victims of the killer that had survived at a crime scene. Flo stepped in and helped falsify the autopsy report making it so it instead said the victim was stabbed multiple times, leaving out the part that stated accidentally being shot by a detective. This event shaped Joe drastically. It’s the reason why Joe got suspended, a divorce, a heart attack, and left LA. However, the mental wounds still appear to be fresh because while he was staying in his motel he had photos plastered on the wall of the victims from his case when he was a detective. He stares at these photos at night and even hallunciates the victims being in his hotel room, gawking at him sadly. Joe stares at them and says to himself, “It’s never over,” representing how this case has mentally eaten away at him causing him to feel haunted by the victims and his horrible accident of killing one of them. All in all, solving the case would allow Joe to live with himself.
When it comes to the dynamic between these two men, they are each other's anchors. When one begins to crack, the other puts him back together. As Jimmy begins a downward spiral, desperate to solve the case, Joe has to calm him and say, “Trust the case.” And when Jimmy sees Joe unraveled in his own apartment, staring at the pictures of the victims, Jimmy tells him he needs to get help. Unfortunately, when they are in two separate places and Jimmy finds himself alone with their prime suspect, he loses his collective cool allowing the suspect, Albert Sparma (Jared Leto) to lead him away. Sparma plays mind games with Baxter, weakening his resolve, as he has throughout the whole movie and, ultimately, Jimmy snaps, killing the man with a shovel. Of course, Jimmy instantly regrets it and begins to repeat to himself that Sparma had to be the killer, because if he wasn't then he just killed a mentally disturbed, innocent man.
This is when the morality of both of the men becomes even more skewed because Joe decides they should hide the body and cover up the killing. It's very shocking, considering Joe had been in this situation previously in his life and it resulted in him having a downward spiral and moving away from LA. When Jimmy falls apart in the middle of nowhere after committing the crime Joe explains to him, “It’s the little things Jimmy. It’s the little things that rip you apart. It’s the little things that get you caught.” This quote that Joe has repeated various iterations of throughout the movie begins to make sense. The audience originally thinks that when Joe says this he’s referring to catching killers, however the audience now knows that he’s referring to getting away with your own crimes. Joe Deacon has now covered two crimes and gotten away with them when he was, instead, supposed to be solving the ongoing serial killer case. This is something that the audience knows must weigh heavily on him and it’s evident when the film ends with him sending Jimmy a comforting note and a red barrette clip that looks like one of the missing girls’. He plays it off like he got the red barrette clip from Sparma’s house but in actuality he bought it at a store. This act itself was Joe’s way of trying to help Jimmy not torture himself and feel haunted by the victims like he had been for so long.
Overall, what The Little Things does best is creating complex characters that struggle with the balance of morality while solving a difficult case. Joe Deacon and Jimmy Baxter mean well with their goal of solving the case, but their drive combined with the little things they fixate on are ultimately what get the two in hot water. The case eats them alive from the inside out and pushes them to walk a thin line of the ends to justify the means as long as they catch who they believe to be the killer. While the film ends with Jimmy getting a false piece of mind, Joe is stuck carrying the burden of covering up two crimes he was involved in.
Works Cited
The Little Things. Directed by John Lee Hancock, performances by Denzel Washington and
Rami Malek, Warner Bros Pictures, 2021, 25 June 2021, https://www.hbomax.com.