Credit: Alamy

Denzel Washington in The Little Things is meant to be doing one simple job, but all it takes is one case that pulls him back towards the exact darkness he thought he had left behind, and you can almost watch him contemplate not going back again, but how would we have this amazing Netflix watch then?

John Lee Hancock wrote the screenplay back in 1992, when all that analogue police work was just police work, and then spent years watching the project sit in development hell before directing it himself (did you know Steven Spielberg was once attached to it?). However, the material was considered too dark, and Warner Bros released the finished film in January 2021.

Now to the good part, which is where Denzel Washington comes in. He plays Joe ‘Deke’ Deacon, a Kern County deputy sent to Los Angeles to pick up evidence, which should be boring enough, except he walks into a murder investigation being handled by Rami Malek’s Jim Baxter as he spots details, thus dragging back up an old case.

The murders involve women being stalked around Los Angeles, and Deke starts helping Baxter chase the killer because, once an old case has gotten into your mind, you can kiss walking goodbye. Finally, Albert Sparma catches their attention, an appliance-repair worker who seems to get far too much pleasure from being under suspicion.

And this is where the film starts having a bit of fun with you, because Sparma looks guilty enough, but looking guilty is worth sod all without evidence. The detectives watch him and keep pushing, yet the proof refuses to play ball, so before long, you are not just wondering whether Sparma did it; you are watching what that uncertainty does to the men chasing him.

Washington is, well, Washington; this man has been doing more work with his eyes than his words for generations now. But the real screen stealer is Jared Leto, who blows life into Sparma and makes him so creepy that even when the bloke is doing very little, you would still rather not sit in the same room as him. He even earned Golden Globe and Sag nominations for the role.

Denzel Washington’s daughter, Olivia, also appears as Amy Anders and shares a police-station scene with him. Hancock also refused to haul the story into the smartphone era, keeping it in 1990, which makes sense once you see how much of the tension depends on people not having answers sitting in their pockets.

Now for the comeback bit, because five years after release, The Little Things is climbing the Netflix charts. Well, not surprising, and Denzel Washington is always trending, but also not too shabby for a film whose screenplay spent close to three decades gathering dust before anybody got it onto a screen.

So, fancy a crime thriller that does not want to spoon-feed you? Give this one a go.