54
Metascore
48 reviews · Provided by Metacritic.com
- 75IndieWireDavid EhrlichIndieWireDavid 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.
- 75Entertainment WeeklyLeah GreenblattEntertainment 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.
- 75The PlaylistRodrigo PerezThe 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.
- 70Arizona RepublicBill GoodykoontzArizona 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.
- 67The A.V. ClubA.A. DowdThe A.V. ClubA.A. DowdTo enjoy the film on its own cookie-cutter terms depends on finding pleasure, guilty or otherwise, in tropes recycled with total straight-faced conviction. Or maybe to crave comfort food of a variety Hollywood doesn’t churn out quite as frequently as it used to.
- 63The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Barry HertzThe Globe and Mail (Toronto)Barry HertzHancock (The Blind Side, The Founder) keeps the action moving briskly and with little tonal confusion, highlighting just what a polished studio-favoured professional can do when given gobs of money and zero intellectual-property obligations. And his trio of leading men are all given ample space to play to their strengths.
- 50IGNTom JorgensenIGNTom JorgensenIt’s disappointing to see a triad of talented actors like Denzel Washington, Rami Malek, and Jared Leto wasted in The Little Things, a straightforward and seldom surprising murder-mystery.
- 40The GuardianBenjamin LeeThe GuardianBenjamin LeeIt’s a film trapped between a low- and a highbrow version of a story we know all too well, landing firmly in the middle of the road.
- 40EmpireDan JolinEmpireDan JolinA throwback thriller which brings nothing new to a crowded genre, and has little to say along the way. They don’t make ’em like this anymore, and, to be honest, they probably shouldn’t.
- 30TheWrapAlonso DuraldeTheWrapAlonso DuraldeOverall, The Little Things — which is how Deke refers to the details that lead to killers being caught — isn’t much of anything.