Lonely Hearts (2006)

Strong and Moving!

As Good As It Gets

A lot more amusing than I thought it would be.

It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

The global success and Oscar nominations (and wins) for "L.A. Confidential" ('97) put the neo-noir / crime thriller genre back on the map in terms of Hollywood big productions, featuring major stars and established directors, and several films succeeded, such as "The Black Dahlia" and "Hollywoodland" (both from '06), based on real life cases of infamous murder, some unsolved to this days."Lonely Hearts" from the very same year, tells the real life story of Raymond Martinez Fernandez (played by Jared Leto) and Martha Beck (played by Salma Hayek), the notorious "Lonely Hearts Killers", a couple that during the 40's conned several wealthy widows, by placing ads in magazines, pretending to be brother and sister. As the delusional and sociopath Martha became more possessive towards Raymond, she starts killing his fiancees, afraid that he could fell in love with one of their unsuspecting victims. Det. Elmer Robinson (John Travolta), a newly widower and his partner, Det. Charles Hilderbrandt (James Gandolfini) with the help of Det. Reilly (Scott Caan), are tasked to investigate the case...Screenwriter & documentary director, Todd Robinson, the real life grandson of Det. Elmer Robinson, made here his screen debut directing a theatrical released motion picture, which also penned the screenplay due to his emotional connection to the real life case, via his own grandfather, who told him curiosities about it since his early age.Robinson made good use of his Art Department: all the props; the sets' decoration; the hairstyles and costumes; the cars and the planes, are very faithful invoking the 40's Era and the movie looks and feels it visually. For its medium budget it's a hit.The screenplay could have been better handled, way too much screentime was given to the pair of detectives and their own private lifes, instead of focusing it more on the killers, enhancing the couple's wicked behavior and their descent into doom. The added humor beetween Gandolfini and Scott Caan's characters always picking on each other, is somewhat funny at the beginning, but ultimately, repetitive and unnecessary.The cinematography is only appropriate as so is the direction, it have a certain TV feeling to it, maybe due to the budgetary reasons, it lacks wide shots and the violence is also toned down, with the noble exception of one well staged sordid scene involving the infamous couple and Alice Krige's character.The editing obviously suffered from scenes left out in the cutting room floor, maybe to shorten the movie to be more audience friendly, but that affects the storytelling with several breaks in the narrative and an anti-climatic (not so) grand finale.John Travolta is okay in the lead role of Elmer Robinson, with a good supporting turn from the late great James Gandolfini, even if his character was seriously underdeveloped, with both sharing good on-screen chemistry, proved earlier in "Get Shorty" ('95). Scott Caan is in training mode for his future role of Danny Williams in the hit TV show, "Hawaii Five-0" and Laura Dern did her best out of a pointless character, Travolta's colleague at the Force and, secretly, his mistress. Jared Leto as Ray Fernandez is over the top hammy, too cartoon-ish for a movie like this, almost shading his ridiculous performance in "Panic Room" ('02), but Salma Hayek saves the movie in the acting department, offering a commited performance as the wicked Martha Beck, had the movie being better she could have possibly been a contender for an Academy Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role.In short, "Lonely Hearts" deserves, at least, a watch for completists of neo-noir, "killers on the run" and period pieces, it's a kind of hybrid beetween "Badlands" & "The Black Dahlia" and even if it isn't as good as the previous adaptation of this story to the big screen, "The Honeymoon Killers" ('70), which was more faithful to the real life case and more focused on the couple, it have Salma in one of her best performances to date and some good cinematic moments...

I've just watched this film on YouTube so the resolution wasn't great, however what an atmospheric well acted movie. The cops are hard boiled flawed individuals and the perpetrators were truly sociopathic. The portrayal the evil couple Ray and Martha knocked the 60s portrayal of Bonnie & Clyde into a cocked hat & probably is only equalled by Martin and Cissy in Badlands. This film didn't follow the formula of having a crescendo like conclusion, but things like this don't in real life, no one wins and all that's left is a big hole of sadness and I think that's what this film does so well. It emphasises the complete self absorption of the perpetrators and the tiny world they inhabit between themselves and demonstrates the evil they do when they interact with the real world. Well worth 8.5 a great telling of a true crime!

Leto and Hayek are fantastic and this film SHOULD have been about their story, romance, crimes, etc., with a minor subplot about the effort and success in tracking and prosecuting the deadly duo. There's been gazillions of crime dramas about cop partners and their comradie. A substantial number feature a jaded cop whose family, sweetheart, etc., attempt to pull him out of depression, pathos, etc. This movie is without question the dullest, most uninspired example of this genre, storyline, etc., that ever made it to production. Travolta's burned out cop story is beyond boring: the viewer literally taps his/her foot to get past the melodramatic scenes with Travolta, his son, his partner, his girlfriend, etc., and get back to Leto and Hayek. I know some will consider the following a cheap shot but Travolta is fat and frankly, homely and his depressed cop runs the gamete of emotions from "A" to "B". The only physical thing in this flick bigger that Travolta is Gandolfini. Think Goodyear and Goodrich. Such doesn't make LONELY HEARTS any easier to watch. This film is/was a total miscalculation. Leto and Hayek are that good that their subplot redeems.

This is a dark, shocking and fairly gripping crime story undercut slightly by some bad storytelling decisions. It's like a wonderful meal where the chef decided to use pepper when he should have used salt. It doesn't ruin anything but it leaves a bit of an odd taste in your mouth.Based on a real life story from around 1950, Lonely Hearts is about Ray Fernandez (Jared Leto) and Martha Beck (Salma Hayek), a small time con man and the crazy woman who led him into a murder spree. At least it should have been about them because they are both fascinating characters and Jared Leto and Salma Hayek give strong performances in the roles. Unfortunately, writer/director Todd Robinson decided that Ray and Martha would have to share the screen equally with Elmer "Buster" Robinson (John Travolta), the police detective who eventually brought Ray and Martha to justice. Buster isn't really that interesting and it isn't helped by John Travolta giving one of the most sedentary and impassive performances of his career.Ray Fernandez was a confidence man who used his easy charm and a toupee to romance widows and old maids he met through "lonely hearts" newsletters and then took all their money. When he tries to take advantage of Martha, she not only sees through him, she overwhelms him with her passion and latches onto Ray with the obsession that the emotionally-damaged call love. Ray is a bad guy but he's also a normal guy who's almost helpless against the manipulation of the sociopathic Martha. She's incapable of considering anything but her own unquestioned needs and it gives her a strength that Ray finds irresistible. This common criminal and this deranged woman come together and turn petty crimes into inhuman savagery.The story also deals with Buster Robinson's uneasy relationship with his his partner Charlie (James Gandolfini) and his lover Renee (Laura Dern), a woman who works at his precinct. Underneath it all is Buster's unresolved sorrow and grief over the unexplained suicide of his wife. The problem is that all of Buster's difficulties are addressed in a perfunctory manner and don't connect in either a direct or analogous way to Ray and Martha's story. Nothing about Buster's life is all that compelling. It's certainly not as engrossing as Ray and Martha's twisted union or their relationship with their poor victims. When the film focuses on those women and how their unhappiness, personal hardship and hope made them vulnerable, it is both creepy and riveting. Writer/director Todd Robinson is the grandson of the real Buster Robinson, but his desire to enhance his grandfather's role in the story distracts from the heart of the tale without adding enough substance on its own. The film is also hurt by some intrusive and pointless narration by Buster's partner and an excessive amount of vulgarity and crudity from the cops at the start of the film that spoils the illusion of 1950s wholesomeness that would have been such an affecting counterpoint to Ray and Martha's depravity. I'm sure the police of that era didn't talk and act like Shirley Temple, but it was an age where manners and social order were almost oppressively strong and I don't think writer/director Robinson has any idea how different then was from now.For the outstanding acting of Leto and Hayek and its powerful, startling moments of human brutality, Lonely Hearts is well worth watching. It could have been even better, but you can't hold that against it.