![]() When I discovered that Tony Scott had taken his own life, I felt conflicted. How’s the trunk space?” Deke and Jimmy tell themselves they’ve got their man and it’s only a matter of time before Sparma incriminates himself, but it’s often Sparma who has the upper hand.Starring Denzel Washington, Val Kilmer, Jim Caviezel, Paula Patton, Bruce Greenwood, Adam Goldberg “You must really like my car,” he says to Deke as Deke shines a flashlight on the vehicle in the dead of night. Instead of being freaked out to be under the microscope, the creepy Sparma actually seems thrilled to be the target of the investigation. Meanwhile, Deke and Jimmy zero in on their prime suspect, one Albert Sparma (Jared Leto), who has the long hair and beard of Jesus Christ but the look of the devil himself in his deep-black eyes. With the Thomas Newman score helping set the ominous mood and director of photography John Schwartzman shooting in sometimes-nightmarish tones, e.g., the sickly greens in a cheap apartment turned murder scene and in a Medical Examiner’s room where Deke literally talks to a corpse, saying, “I’m all the friend you’ve got,” we get brief flashbacks and cryptic references to the incident that prompted Deke to leave the department a half-decade ago. Upon first glance, the wiry young Jimmy with his suit and his sunglasses and his by-the-book investigative techniques couldn’t be more of a mismatch for the grizzled, thick-bodied aging lion Deke, who relies on instincts and an obsession with “the little things,” but Jimmy recognizes an asset when he sees it, and he invites Deke to stick around (there’s a grisly new fresh crime scene to inspect) and within days, they’re de facto partners.ĭetective Jim Baxter (Rami Malek) goes by the book in his hunt for a serial killer. It’s almost as if they have a long and complicated history.ĭeke arrives just as hotshot Detective Jim Baxter (Rami Malek) is holding a press conference about the search for a serial killer who is terrorizing the city. (We’ll say no more about how that plays out.) When Deke walks into the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s office that served as his home base for some 15 years, a few wily long-timers such as Chris Bauer’s Detective Sal Rizoli are happy to see him, but the upstanding Captain Carl Farris (the great Terry Kinney) makes no effort to shield his contempt for Deke. He’ll be in and out so quickly, he won’t even have time to connect with former colleagues, or even stay overnight.īy this point, writer-director Hancock (“The Alamo,” “The Blind Side,” “The Highwaymen”) has set the tone for an unnerving thriller via an extended sequence involving a young woman (Sofia Vassilieva) who is driving alone on a desolate stretch of road when a motorist begins to stalk her. Deke is a loner (he once was a family man, but no more) who wants nothing more than to keep to himself and stay away from L.A., but he has to return to his old stomping grounds to pick up some evidence. and a world away in terms of intensity and pressure and frequency of violent crimes. ![]() So it’s no surprise he fits so comfortably into the role and exudes such world-weary gravitas as Joe “Deke” Deacon, once a legendary homicide detective in Los Angeles County but in recent years living a relatively quiet existence as a deputy sheriff in Kern County, which is about 160 miles north of L.A. I’m still not sure all the pieces of the razor-edged jigsaw puzzle fit snugly into place when all was said and solved, but isn’t there something exhilarating about character-piece murder mysteries that practically demand debate about not only the main plot, but the actions of the leads? (Eighty years after the debut of “The Maltese Falcon,” one can still make the case Bogie could have gone another way at the end.)įrom “The Mighty Quinn” (1988) to “Fallen” (1998) to “Training Day” (2001) to “Déjà vu” (2006) to the “Equalizer” movies, Denzel Washington has played a canyon-wide array of current or former law enforcement agents, and also Denzel Washington can do just about anything. ![]() Pretty good albeit disturbing company to keep, and “The Little Things” (which remains set in the early 1990s) is a worthy companion to that roster - a disturbingly effective work with masterful performances from a triad of Oscar winners in prime form. Opens Friday at local theaters and on HBO Max. Rated R (for violent/disturbing images, language and full nudity). Warner Bros presents a film written and directed by John Lee Hancock.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |