Denzel Washington and Frances McDormand play scheming lovers in the latest big-screen adaptation of a classic story, and one of its most stark renditions.

“The Little Things” is a classic old blood/new blood story coursing through clogged narrative arteries, enlisting Denzel Washington as venerable ex-investigator Joe Deacon and a robotic Rami Malek the down-to-business young cop who has been successful up to this point in keeping the ugliness of the occupation out of his cozy home life. Joe hasn’t been as lucky; he’s psychologically worn down by a series of past slayings, the culprit of which remains free. But something else about that history keeps peeling the scab open afresh, and as much as “The Little Things” is about us watching Joe following a killer’s breadcrumb trail, it also fashions us into detectives trying to piece together his past.