DEACON BLUE (THE LITTLE THINGS)

The problem with the serial killer genre these days is that it takes real skill to do something really original.

Alfred Hitchcock, Michael Powell, Charles Laughton, Jonathan Demme, David Fincher and Christopher Nolan all blazed the trail, with movies like 'Psycho,' 'Peeping Tom,' 'Night of the Hunter,' 'Silence of the Lambs,' 'Seven,' 'Zodiac' and 'Insomnia' pushing the boundaries of the genre.

But as studios have started to concentrate on money spinning superhero movies, cute animated features and low ball comedies, the genre has started to migrate to TV with shows like Showtime's 'Dexter,' BBC's 'The Fall,' HBO's 'True Detective' and Netflix's 'Mindhunter'.

Enter John Lee Hancock with 'The Little Things' - a film which Steven Spielberg was originally linked with as far back as 1993 and Clint Eastwood, Warren Beatty and Danny de Vito also contemplated directing at various stages.

Denzel Washington plays a deputy sheriff who was once based in LA and is called upon to help with a murder investigation in his old patch.

Accompanying Rami Malek's Detective Jim Baxter to the scene, John 'Deke' Deacon notices some similarities between the case and one from 1990 that haunted him and forced him out of the LA Sheriff's Department.

Terry Kinney's Captain Farris advises Baxter not to include Deke in his investigation, warning him that the deputy sheriff got so obsessed with the 1990 case that he suffered a heart attack and his marriage crumbled.

However Deke can't leave the similarities between the two cases go and even takes leave from his current job to assist Baxter with the investigation.

Another woman, Maya Kazan's Rhonda Rathburn goes missing after being followed by a car while jogging and another victim's body is discovered under a bridge.

Noticing all the victims whose bodies were discovered were sex workers, Deke's attention starts to focus on Jared Leto's repair store worker Albert Sparma who he starts to tail.

Establishing a rapport with Baxter, the duo team up and focus increasingly on Sparma as the prime suspect.

And so a cat and mouse game begins with Sparma being pulled in for questioning, getting inside their heads and pushing the two detectives' buttons, 

Written and directed by Hancock, 'The Little Things' is a curiously stale affair.

Clearly aspiring to be like David Fincher's 'Seven,' it slavishly follows familiar serial killer tropes with all the enthusiasm of telephone sales worker which is appropriate because most of the performances feel dialled in.

Washington, who is the best of the three principal actors, turns in a below par performance but at least tries to bring a sense of urgency to a cumbersome, clichéd part.

Malek struggles to generate any enthusiasm in the role of the up and coming detective, Jim Baxter.

It is a weird, can't be arsed kind of performance which suffers when measured against Brad Pitt's Detective David Mills in 'Seven'.

However it is by some distance not the weakest performance which goes to that serial over actor Jared Leto in a role that was bizarrely nominated for a Golden Globe.

Leto, who appears incapable of delivering a subtle performance, is all about the look.

Dressed like a hobo Jesus, he desperately wants to show his character's native cunning but is like a child screaming for your attention when you are the only two people in the room.

None of the female actors have much to work with.

Natalie Morales goes through the motions as Detective Jamie Estrada, while Isabelle Arraiza plays Baxter's dutiful wife.

And while John Schwartzmann's cinematography is handsome enough, 'The Little Things' is an empty moviegoing experience.

There's nothing to savour here.

It's a derivative film which feels like a throwback to a different era - a by the book serial killer film that is unworthy of being called a thriller because it has no thrills to share.

Hancock has nothing original to show and his cast have nothing original to do.

His film is tired.

It is clichéd and it is well past its sell by date.

But at least Malek gets to wear some nice suits. 

Sometimes there's a reason why movies languish in development hell.

Having emerged out of it, 'The Little Things' makes you wish it stayed there.

('The Little Things' was released on Video on Demand services in the UK and Ireland on March 11, 2021)