For nearly 90 minutes, writer/director John Lee Hancock’s The Little Things is about as well-made and entertaining a mainstream thriller as viewers could expect.

The saga of disgraced former LAPD detective Joe Deacon (Denzel Washington) returning to his old stomping grounds — where he’s promptly (conveniently?) swept up in what appears to be the latest murder in the unsolved case that cost him his job and marriage — builds tantalizing suspense surrounding his past and why he’s reviled by his former colleagues.

Handed a shot at redemption by Jim Baxter (Rami Malek), the officer who took his place, Joe quickly flexes the investigative skills that earned him the department’s highest clearance rate. The assignment is a natural fit for Washington, who popped off films like The Little Things on a regular basis during his fruitful partnership with the late, great Tony Scott, and it’s a pleasure to see him back in flawed genius form.

Layering in uncertainty, Hancock (The Founder; Saving Mr. Banks) takes a page out of Nightcrawler and Roman J. Israel, Esq. writer/director Dan Gilroy’s book and sets his tale in rarely seen corners of L.A. Toss in a poker-faced Malek being unreadable to the point of potentially untrustworthy and Jared Leto adding another creep to his resumé as prime suspect Albert Sparma and the web of mysteries remains deliciously taut.

In untangling these strands, however, Hancock struggles and The Little Things largely falls apart in its final half hour — a concluding stretch marred by numerous information gaps and leaps of logic, namely poor decisions that suggest a greater desperation than these characters have exhibited thus far.

Much of the trouble stems from the cops’ borderline blinding insistence that Sparma is their man, and while he certainly fits the profile on numerous levels, Hancock seems tragically intent on crafting a complex serial killer on par with Se7en’s John Doe.

Presenting someone so obsessed with crimes and police investigations that he’d willingly place himself at the center of a case — regardless of guilt or innocence — Hancock fails to develop Sparma to the extent that the character’s eventual arc is believable, suggesting the need for a co-writer to smooth out the rough patches.

Grade: B. Rated R. Starts Jan. 29 at AMC River Hills 10 and Carolina Cinemark, the same day it’s available to stream via HBO Max

(Photo: Warner Bros.)