The Story: Still mourning. Still thinking the five stages of grief. Denial. Anger. Bargaining. Depression. Acceptance.
And, here, in the recent film The Little Things, we have bargaining.
But, it's an odd thing, an odd scene. It takes place in a morgue, a place not unfamiliar to Deputy Sheriff Joe Deacon. He's left alone with the corpse of a recent killing, the latest in a string of murders that feel all too familiar to him. That he couldn't bring in the perpetrator weighs on him—especially now that it seems to have continued. He might not be here, talking to this woman's body if he had. Complications—failings of his—took him off the case and forced a relocation, an exile of sorts, to Bakersfield.
And he starts talking. To the corpse. He's not expecting any answers, but he's going through the steps that might have led to her killing. He's interviewing the witness, trying to get answers, trying to understand...the steps it took for why they are both there. It's grief. It's transference. It's looking for answers. It's a strange and creepy head-space to be in.
The Set-Up: Deputy Sheriff Joe "Deke" Deacon (Denzel Washington) has returned to L.A. where he was once a detective with the County Sheriff's office. The trip is to collect evidence from their lab needed for a prosecution, but, back in his old digs, he starts living again in his old haunts. The Sheriff's office is investigating a serial killer, one with a modus operandi of his last case with the department, one he couldn't solve. He asks a former co-worker for a piece of evidence from the last case. She's reluctant, having gone too far for Deke in the past. When she leaves, he's left alone with the most recent victim. And he begins to talk.
Action.
Deke nods. Flo sighs and walks out of the room.
Words by John Lee Hancock
Pictures by John Schwartzman and John Lee Hancock
The Little Things is available for streaming on HBOMax and on DVD and Blu-Ray from Warner Home Video.
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