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Lonely Hearts (2006) More at IMDbPro »

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71 out of 97 people found the following comment useful :-
Decide for yourself but I thought it was excellent., 25 November 2006

Author: Peter Nomad from Australia

I'm losing faith in this forum and some of the people that vote here... How can you possibly rate this film as a 1 or 2 or 3? Each to their own I suppose and for whatever reasoning or motives... For myself, I found this movie to be excellent. It held my interest from start to finish - and the finish was satisfying. Gandolfini and Travolta were excellent as you would and should expect. Salma Hayek gave what I think should be an award winning performance. Jared Leto was also superb... I can't say I've noticed him in anything of note before this. It was also nice to see Laura Dern again - I've been hot for her since watching Rambling Rose : ) All I can say is watch this movie and decide for yourself. I definitely recommend it.

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54 out of 67 people found the following comment useful :-
Dramatized True Crime at it finest!, 9 December 2006

Author: guitarcarl from United States

This is an excellent film. Filmed in a classic "Film Noir" style, it is both dark and engaging. The script is well written and expertly crafted. The pace is fluid and the characters are well developed.

The score is appropriate and effective. It helps create tension and mood without becoming oppressive as many scores do.

The cinematography is absolutely terrific and creates a dark and intimate view.

All these elements combine to create an excellent environment for what is a truly inspiring cast. It would be difficult to overstate the quality performances of the entire cast. John Travolta was completely convincing as he always is but I think he may have surprised even his most supportive fans. He nailed the part hands down. In one scene he suspects a dead body is possibly hidden in a box and the mood he creates as he approaches and investigates the box is riveting.

But the true star of this movie was without doubt Salma Hayek. She was mesmerizing as Martha Beck, a true masterpiece. She played evil so well it was spooky. Most people who watch this movie are going to really enjoy how carefully she seduces the viewer into her despotic plans. This is certainly one of her finest portrayals and shows she has considerable acting depth. A nasty "femme fatale" may not be a huge stretch for her but she really did a terrific job.

"Lonely Hearts" is not a family movie. There is plenty of blood, boobs and bad language. The movie deals with very heavy themes like suicide and child murder. And to make matters worse for young ones the story is true. Martha Beck and Raymond Fernandez were real monsters and the movie shows more than enough to make that clear to anyone including kids.

I am a big fan of true crime and this film is really great. For me at least, it was one of the best I've seen in a long time. If you are an adult I recommend this film. Dramatized True Crime at it finest!

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37 out of 48 people found the following comment useful :-
Salma Hayek ! in Full Femme Fatale Mode A.K.A Oscar Nomination, 8 June 2006

Author: osminbet from United States

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

Well let me tell you. James Galdolfini and John Travolta were there and Todd Robinson gave a Q & A for about 10 minutes.

The Film:

The film is excellent, the story, the editing, the costume, the cinematography. It is a really well made film. The score was great also. From 1-10 I give the film and 8.

The Acting: Travolta, Gandolfino, Leto and Dern are good....However is Salma Hayek who steals the show. Her performance is like taken from a Film Noir of the 40s. She is volatile, sadistic and evil conniving femme fatale. She scores the best performance by far. Her lines are great and she looks stunning. You actually forget she is Salma Hayek. She becomes one with her character.

My Prediction: Salma Hayek will score an Oscar Nomination as Best Supporting Actress for her compelling and superb performance.

Salma gives a career changing performance. You forget she is the same actress that worked in such films as Wild Wild West and Bandidas. In the Lonely Hearts, she is glamorous. She is truly a "femme fatale." Her character is trying to find happiness, however she is looking for it in the wrong places. From the beginning, Salma Hayek's Martha Beck is powerful, complicated, passionate and SICK! By the time the film is ending, you see a dark, evil and destroyed character, yet you feel her pain. She wants happiness all along, but did not find it.

Best Lines: Martha: Has Anybody Ever Loved You that Much Detective? Martha: To Kill or Die....For You

In this scene she already has been captured and in being interrogated. She has no make-up and she looks evil! Yet mesmerizing. What I think could get her a nomination is that: She is not a leading character, yet she controls the movie. She has the emotional part on her side.

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31 out of 39 people found the following comment useful :-
Compelling yet repulsive film, 26 May 2006

Author: toobisbee from United States

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

I checked this film out at the Jacksonville Film Festival last weekend, and I've been thinking about it ever since. On the one hand, I can say I'm proud to live in the city where such a brilliantly directed and photographed film was made; on the other, this is a film I don't believe I ever need to watch again.

The performances of all the principal players - particularly Travolta, Gandolfini, Dern, Leto and Hayek - are amazing, brilliant, utterly believable, etc. The set and costume design, and cinematography are by themselves worthy of at least Academy Award nominations. And the story (based on real events, although I'm sure much was fictionalized), is both riveting and repulsive.

Salma Hayek stands out particularly for her portrayal of the seductive, depraved and sadistic Martha Beck, one half of the brutal "Lonely Hearts" killers. She should come with her own tag line, "If looks could kill..." Hayek's interpretation of this character is the polar opposite of Charlize Theron's in "Monster," but no less effective. I'm thinking that if Ms. Theron's work in that film deserved an Oscar, then Ms. Hayek deserves no less for the amazing way she makes her "beautiful butcher" completely believable.

Without spoiling the plot, let me just provide this advisory. If brutal, bloody murders, suicides, explicit (non-erotic) sexuality, and the constant dropping of the "F-bomb" - not in a sexual way - are not your thing, then you may want to skip this film. It's not a date movie or a chick flick by any means, despite the romantic come-on in the title. The film is almost completely devoid of humor; humor would seem inappropriate in this context.

Although justice is apparently served - this is revealed at the very beginning of the film - no one will walk away from this film feeling very uplifted by what they will have just seen.

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52 out of 88 people found the following comment useful :-
Go See This Movie!, 25 May 2006

Author: jafrre from United States

This is a great movie. Salma Hayek is believably psycho, it makes me wonder. Jared Leto did a great job as the small time playboy turned killer. Travolta, Gandolfini and Caan flow through the movie with a genuine discomfort. As if they were detectives hoping to find that one shred of evidence that breaks the case. With this list of stars you would think it would be a brawl for attention, but alas a director keeps it all in check. Writer/Director Todd Robinson is the grandson of Elmer C Robinson (John Travolta) the lead detective on this case. He draws from the stories passed down to him. The kind of story that grandfather's pass down to grandson's. Truly a great piece of work. See this movie and try to prove me wrong.

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28 out of 42 people found the following comment useful :-
leto shines, 4 December 2006

Author: hiroyukiwu from China

two detectives, 'buster'Elmer C. Robinson (travolta) and Charles Hildebrandt (gandolfini) hunt two killers Martha Beck and Raymond Fernandez played by salma hayek and jared leto.

basically the story is of two policemen chasing after two killers who, by posing as a single man and sister, enlist in finding their victims through the lonely hearts columns within newspapers and magazines.

on the acting side we'll start with the policemen first, travolta as essentially the lead cop in this movie is a somewhat torn man in his duty as a cop and in the loss of his wife, travolta soon finds a new lease,to speak of, by trying to capture the two killers, he is helped in this matter by gandolfini as his straight thinking,talking friend, but though the acting between the two is of an OK standing (gandolfini coming off stronger) the pairing doesn't come off as one would hope and it is slightly stale, more so within their dialog together.

the hunted pair,hayek and leto, have a better chemistry, despite what many have seen of hayek in this film, being wooden and poorly acted out, i'd give her a little more credit than the naysayers, mainly because the person she is portraying is of that type of person, soulless and wholeheartedly callous. her dominance shows through in her interpretation of a jealous and highly possessive person. but the real star who shines in this movie is leto, from his smile right down to the unsteadiness of his actions, movements,gestures are perfect and really shows us what his is capable of, could well be we are witnessing him in his prime, his ending is very well shot (credit to the director there, Todd Robinson).

a long and somewhat violent film, yet it leaves enough subject for conversation and reply value. in terms of what director robinson has achieve,well thats not much, mainly a wasted cast on a somewhat unfair choice in director (The director's grandfather was Elmer C. Robinson, the cop who investigated the Lonely Hearts murders). but still a film to watch.

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30 out of 46 people found the following comment useful :-
Lethal Jealousy, 26 December 2006

Author: Claudio Carvalho from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

In the late 40's, the swindler Raymond Martinez Fernandez (Jared Leto) seduced lonely women to steal their possessions. When he meets the deranged Martha Beck (Salma Hayek), they fall in love for each other. With the jealous Martha posing as if she were his sister, the crook Ray seduces and kills other women. Two New York Detectives - Elmer C. Robinson (John Travolta) and Charles Hildebrandt (James Gandolfini) - chase the sociopaths, but without having the evidence of a body. In the end of 40's, the couple is arrested and sentenced to death, being electrocuted in March, 1951 in Sing Sing.

"Lonely Hearts" is a simple story based on a true event supported by a great cast and excellent cinematography and costumes. The story of the "Lonely Hearts Killers" is violent and a flag for those pro-death penalty sentence. Cold blood killers like Raymond and Martha do not deserve to have a second chance in a society of human beings. My vote is seven.

Title (Brazil): "Os Fugitivos" ("The Runaways")

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15 out of 17 people found the following comment useful :-
Film noire + femme fatale + murder = one terrific movie, 2 September 2007

Author: Craig McPherson from Montreal, Canada

"You know what they say about cops and donuts" quips Salma Hayek's character Martha Beck to James Gandolfini in the movie Lonely Hearts, "they're only good when they have a hole in them." This, coupled with Gandolfini's retort "funny, they say the same thing about women", captures the essence of the Chandler-esquire dialog that peppers this true crime homage to film noir.

The movie tells the story of Raymond Fernandez (Jared Leto) and Martha Beck who carved out their own chapter in the annals of crime history during the 1940s as the Lonely Hearts Killers. Together, Fernandez and Beck ran a con game using personal ads to seek out wealthy widows and single women with money. Fernandez would engage in correspondence with the women, eventually meeting them and gaining their trust as well as access to their money. Beck, would accompany him posing has his sister, helping Fernandez gain the trust of their victims, whom the two murdered after they'd drained their bank accounts. At the time of their capture, the body count they'd racked up was estimated at between 12 and 20.

Directed by Todd Robinson, the grandson of detective Elmer Robinson (played by John Travolta), the story alternates between that of Fernandez and Beck, and pursuing detectives Robinson and Hildebrandt (Gandolfini), with Gandolfini handling the connecting voice-over narration in traditional film noire patter.

Although some details are condensed for narrative purposes, the story largely sticks to the facts of the couple's actual murder spree, the only glaring discrepancy being the casting of Hayek as Beck, who in reality was a rotund, unattractive, battleaxe of a woman who maintained Fernandez's loyalty by granting his every sexual wish. The producers can be forgiven for opting to cast Hayek instead of a more credible Rosie O'Donnell type, however, as Hayek brings more than mere eye-candy to her role. She plays a sadistic, manipulative, cold-blooded murderer to the hilt, and practically serves as the driving engine for the film's story.

With a crackerjack cast of Travolta, Gandolfini, Hayek, Leto and Laura Dern (as Robinson's love interest) all bringing their A-game, coupled with a smartly written screenplay, snappy dialog, good pacing, excellent cinematography and direction, the only oddity about this film is that it was relegated to limited theatrical release, largely playing a few festivals before being relegated to DVD. Unlike the case it is based on, this is one crime that probably will remain unsolved.

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17 out of 22 people found the following comment useful :-
Beautifully filmed, directed and acted; but not much else to enjoy., 16 April 2007

Author: River Collins from United Arab Emirates

Within two minutes of starting this movie it became clear that it was very well put together. Excellent cinematography and costume design.

I'm not sure exactly what it was that disappointed me so much. It could have been the lack of drama. I didn't feel like the plot escaladed to a climax. I understand that this is based on a true story, but it certainly could have been done in a more dramatic way; especially during certain parts of the chase.

The acting was excellent on all parts. In agreement with everyone else, Salma Hayek was a stand-out. However, I feel that Jared Leto (who plays Ray Fernandez) was miss-cast. I think that's the part that prevented me from enjoying this movie the most. I was excited to see this because I am a HUGE Jared Leto fan, and I've always loved the films he's been in, and he's always become one with his character (e.g. his role as Harry Goldfarb in Requiem for a Dream). Although his acting was excellent as always, I just couldn't buy it. As I watched his character evolve I felt more and more conflicted between the good-hearted vulnerability I felt from him (perhaps as a result of watching countless interviews of him), and the bad-hearted almost monster-like character he was meant to be portraying. I just couldn't buy him as a sleaze-bag . In Chapter 27 he portrayed a psychotic man so well you forgot it was Jared right from the get-go, so I know it wasn't his acting that got in the way.

On top of that, I felt that Leto and Hayek didn't make a good on-screen couple. He seemed small in comparison to her. This was a couple that worked together to lure in rich folks; I wanted them to seduce me. Instead I was repelled by them, even in the scenes where they are "sucking in" new prey. I felt that they looked, and even acted, awkward together.

In summary, heightened drama and a more befitting Ray Fernandez would have made this an excellent film.

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8 out of 10 people found the following comment useful :-
Lonely Hearts, 21 January 2007

Author: Raj Doctor from Amsterdam, Netherlands

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

The Lonely Hearts Lonely Heart was released in Amsterdam without much hype. It also ran in few theatres. It is based on a true story of a couple who kills single women – widowed / divorced and rich to rob their money – "The Lonely Heart Killers".

The premise starts with Jared Leto fast talking his way through lonely heart women, and in that course meets Salma Hayek – an unemployed girl who joins hands with Jared and pretending as his sister – starts the race of going from one place to another – leaving a trial of murders. John Travolta and James Gandolfini play cops who are in pursue of this couple killers. The director Todd Robinson runs a parallel sub-plot of John Travolta's life and his evolving relationships with a Laura Dern and his son – I thought that was quite unnecessary, with the fact being the basic premise of the movie was very strong, and with Salma Hayek in her prime form – there was no need to add another female character.

Salma Hayek has played a subtly psychotic character who captures Jared Leto's life – and in jealously of Jared's involvement with widow or divorce women – goes on the rampage of killing them; at times forcing Jared to do so on her behalf. The story in the latter half is more engrossing than the former. During the last episode we assume that Salma develops an emotional bond with the women, whom they are trying to cheat – but the love to Jared and jealously of not bearing her man getting attracted towards any women – ends up in killing the women and also her young child.

John Travolta has given a punching performance as a cop who is seeking answers himself of his wife's suicide (the film begins with that scene) and building evidence to track the couple killers.

The film is shot very well, and the story develops and grows gradually upon you. The last scene of Salma and Jared's execution becomes touching by Salma's voice-over describing the love shared by them; as if our heart goes for actually saving this brutal killers.

Last a mention of Jared Leto, who looks in his getup similar to the original killer and hats off to him for giving a good performance. But the movie and show would be remembered by the cold blooded performance by beautiful Salma.

(6 Star)

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