By: Zack Medicoff

Based on a true story, LONELY HEARTS follows a pocket of troubled characters: a cop with rocky relationships, a con-artist, and a woman with more emotional baggage than the latest Louis Vuitton luggage collection.
They all collide in late 40s America, where post-war wives yearned for love and companionship but were naïve to the malicious intents of some men. And so the film follows the story of Martha Beck and Raymond Fernandez, more aptly known as the “Lonely Heart Killers.”

The plan was simple: lonely women would post ads in a popular national magazine. Ray would reply with letters oozing with poetry, passion and romance. Once they replied, he would set up a meeting. One of the women who answered was Martha Beck, a lonely nurse from a southwestern town.

She was at first a mark, but love at sight made that a whole different story. They were intense, maniacal and both shared the same common interests: kinky sex, violence and money. The two would lure their prey to fork over their cash, and swindle them for every last buck. In the end, they were believed to have murdered about 20 people, 12 of which they confessed. This also included a young girl and her mom.

On the other side, Travolta plays Elmer C. Robinson and James Gandolfini as Charles Hildebrandt, two detectives who worked this notorious but less popularized (think BONNIE AND CLYDE) mid-20th century crime drama.

Actually, the film is a remake of THE HONEYMOON KILLERS a 1970 movie directed by Leonard Kastle. And whereas Kastle’s movie had a plumper actress in the role, this time around Salma Hayek was casted as the bombshell partner to Leto.


Stylisticty, LONLEY HEARTS truly portrays the post-war America backdrop with all the right costumes and settings. The restaurants, offices and bars exude the décor of the time. The acting isn’t half-bad either: Leto appears frail and nervous throughout and Travlota needs no hard work to pull off his flatfoot role.

It’s also actually fun to watch Gandolfini as a detective, this time playing one of the good guys despised by all the world’s evils. Scott Caan also acts as cop with a chip on his shoulder, and adds a little comic relief to the story.
All in all LONELY HEARTS isn’t such a bad watch, even though it never made the mark with audience goers or box office numbers. But that sure shouldn’t deter you from giving it a rent.