re: The Little Things

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Malek later kills Leto and struggles with the guilt of whether he murdered a regular guy or a serial killer, and Denzel sends Malek the barrette, indicating he went back to the apartment and found it.

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That’s what I went with. But Denzel being the killer takes this movie from a 5 to a 7.5. I want to believe.

quote:

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Malek later kills Leto and struggles with the guilt of whether he murdered a regular guy or a serial killer, and Denzel sends Malek the barrette, indicating he went back to the apartment and found it.

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I watched it last night and I'm still unsure what happened--it's left up to interpretation.

Denzel is shown at the end with a brand new pack of barrettes. This could mean he bought from the store having removed the red one and is shown throwing the pack in the fire. Alternatively, it could also mean he found the pack of barrettes in the green toolbox Leto hid in his apartment. But if that is the case, Leto was not the killer at all and is simply obsessed with killings since he had to buy a pack of them to be connected with that particular girl's murder. He also had a copy of Helter Skelter (Manson killings) in his apartment which is shown in a trashbag in the back of Denzel's truck, which adds further credence to that theory.

At first, I thought Denzel was the killer. Someone earlier in the film says that the killer had extremely nice boots that are unmistakable with impeccable stitching. At the end, we see Denzel wearing this style of boots and we also see a pair of blue/gold cowboy boots with exotic leather on his bed when the cleaning lady is cleaning his apartment.

I went back and watched the opening scene and that man does not have on this style of boots, they are black work boots more similar to the ones Leto's character is seen wearing in the desert.

As for the barrette, Denzel knows the it is a "little thing" important to the other detective, it's unclear whether Denzel 1) bought the pack of barrettes, or 2) found the pack in Leto's apartment. He sends the barrette to the kid detective to alleviate the guilt of killing someone if they were innocent, he also tells him "no angels".

Now, this can be interpreted more than one way. The red barrette could mean that Denzel is telling the kid he didn't kill the right guy, I'm the killer and I'm "no angel" either, but you can't come after me because you'll lose your family since I'll expose you for murdering someone. It could also be interpreted that it was found in the apartment and is telling the kid it's okay--you killed the right person.

The other thing is, the guy shown at the beginning stalking the girl does not appear to have long hair and appears to have white skin color. It's entirely possible that we don't ever see the real killer in the film.