Lonely Hearts Killers

Lonely Hearts (2006)

A steady, interesting, colorful crime movie packed with both great old tropes from the film noir days and lots of familiar tricks. Amazingly, it's based on a true story from post-war America that goes way way way beyond the slimmed up version here.

The result is good, yes, but never mesmerizing, never a complete surprise, and never up to the potential of the either the source material or the talented cast. The very dependence of well known formulas for a kind of classic look and feel is what holds it back, because we know those formulas so well. The one aspect to the movie that is forcibly modern is the one that feels so forced it's almost pandering to a contemporary audience--lots of open swearing and sexual references in a manner not really "right" for a 1951 America.

Several lead actors are terrific. Salma Hayek, once she arrives, is an edgy bad girl, a woman with little moral code and a comfort level with blood and manipulation that makes an old school femme fatale look like schoolroom stuff. Her bad boy companion, Jared Leto, at first comes off as a Robert Downey Jr. wannabe, but he gradually hardens up his edges and by the end is pretty believable as a cocksure murderous idiot. The two cops, John Travolta and James Gandolfini, are a great pair, the one restrained and more in tune with the criminals, the other the sidekick with a good heart. (They might be modeled after, say, Glenn Ford and William Bendix, as two 1951 actors who could have pulled off the same roles with more conviction.)

The filming, the editing, the pace, the sets, the old cars, the interior and exterior location shoots, all of the nuts and bolts are in place here for a good movie. (Of these, the photography is the most routine, partly because of how it's directed, as in the last scene when the cops swarm the house--it could have been really exciting.) But overall it's the script--the script, not the story--that holds it all back. The parallel plots of the two criminals in their love affair crime spree and the cops on their trail is clear and fine, but unrevealing. The events happen, and we sort of know how it will end. And it does (not to give away anything!). If you want the true facts, go to the really long but readable account at trutv.com and type in the Lonely Hearts.

As a quick and hopefully helpful movie comparison, you can look at recent films like "Road to Perdition" or "Shutter Island" and see how a period piece film can brim with originality and better filming. A movie comes closer to this kind of familiar quality, based on older classic Hollywood models, is "Public Enemies" with Johnny Depp, though that one had some really beautiful moments in the photography. And what about that title? It is derived from the male killer's original tactic for getting money, which is given a comic treatment at the beginning of the movie--he writes to lonely women, gets them to fall in love with him, and steals their assets.

A final revealing note: the director is the grandson of the cop who led the original investigation into the crimes. That means he's really well placed emotionally, but as a director he's really incomplete. It's amazing, in fact, that he got the budget and talent he did with such a short track record. Opportunity squandered? Partially. Give it a chance.

In the late 40s, Raymond Fernandez (Jared Leto) is a hustler who cons rich women. He meets damaged Martha Beck (Salma Hayek). They become the notorious "Lonely Hearts Killers" who rob lonely widows using personal ads and then kill them. Robinson (John Travolta) and Hildebrandt (James Gandolfini) are homicide detectives. The killers eventually confess to twelve murders in total.

The cast is first rate. There is enough production value. However, writer/director Todd Robinson fails to generate any intensity for me. I think the most compelling characters are Fernandez and Beck. I would have like them to lead. Travolta and Gandolfini are great actors but I'm not fascinated by their characters. Following both sets of characters simply divides the attention of the audience.

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.

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.

Todd Robinson's 'Lonely Hearts' is a dramatization of the harrowing atrocities committed by the infamous Lonely Hearts lovers. The sepia tone, setting and props do give the look of the 40s but the language feels more contemporary.The film tells too parallel stories: that of the two brutal murderers and that of Elmer Robinson who is trying to cope with the loss of his wife.

The latter is boring mostly due to Travolta's poor performance (he looks uninterested almost during the entire running time) and the slow pace. The scenes at the police station fail to engage. Gandolfini is stuck with a cliché while Scott Caan's character is very irritating. Laura Dern is criminally wasted The story of the two murderers is way too fictionalized (or is Hollywoodized a better word?) and way underdeveloped but it grabs the viewer's attention. Jared Leto is exceptional as Ray Fernandez. Salma Hayek is arguably miscast, physically, as she is the total opposite of the real Martha Beck, but if you're willing to let that go then her acting is terrific. Her version of Beck is alluring, manipulative, obsessive and cold blooded and she conveys all those characteristics quite naturally.

Pretty much all the characters are poorly developed. There is no background information on the killers (true accounts depict that Ray's drastic personality change may have been a result of brain injury).

Overall, 'Lonely Hearts' feels very much like an ordinary thriller. Even with a stellar cast it fails to stand out.