at first sigh, a real good film. cast, script, atmosphere - all is more than OK. only problem - the impression to walk in desert. the story is not new but the performance can transforms it in a nice show. or perfect occasion to remember scenes of same type. Jared Leto does a credible seducer and each level of action is correct. but something remains strange or far from expectations.this is the secret of all. and the fundamental sin. maybe, it is its originally mark. or way to remember only an old recipes of thriller. but is it enough ? not exactly. the search to preserve accuracy of real facts can be the source of ash taste. an interesting film. after its end, almost good.

A thriller, in older time, while having a meaning about the importance of not being lonely. I asked myself why it wasn't made by one of the major studios in Hollywood? At the end, I kind of figured it out. The script didn't get deep with the sex and violence of the story. That's it. But, while that being a good thing, it messed, else publicity, the more artistic side that could distinguish the mainstream production sometimes.While it is good and nicely done, this movie lacked more heat, thrill, and most of all style. It seems to be another movie of the week, yet with some gloss. I don't know why it didn't go through its catchy characters, especially the criminal dual. There is absolutely no satisfactory scene for any of them to talk elaborately about themselves, their history, or complications. With another, more sophisticated, director and writer it could have been more interesting and attractive.Whether (John Travolta) meant to handle his character so romantically, or he just was himself. Both ways he didn't affect much. Obviously he likes to flee from Hollywood to do more different, and no light, specter of humans, instead of the nutty evil men, or familiar good men, that Hollywood uses him for. But sorry dear John, you allowed your charisma and frozen quiet grin lead everything, and that was not enough for me. Why I longed for (Russell Crowe) during the whole time?! (James Gandolfini) was sure better. Look at the way he masters utilizing his big body's language. And he, unlike Travolta, wasn't acting at all, not even a bit. Despite the shortness of his role, this is one of the best performances I have ever seen for him to date. (Laura Dern) made fair efforts, according to fairly written material. On the contrary, (Salma Hayek) and (Jared Leto) had been highly wronged by such a careless script.It kept reminding me of (Hollywoodland), strangely produced in the same year. The resonance of true story, the 2 story lines, America of the 1950's. On the level of being even, (Lonely Hearts) wins. Not the same result on the rest levels though. One of my friends used to call the ordinary art works : plain bread. Well, this one is. Yet while having a potential story, stars, and fair atmosphere. Read my title again to have the whole picture !

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.

A number of big budget noir and crime films were released in 2006 ("Black Dahlia", "Hollywoodland", "Miami Vice", "The Departed", "Lonely Hearts Killers" etc), all revolving around parallel story lines.Here we have John Travolta playing a world-weary police detective hot on the heels of Martha Beck and Raymond Fernandez, a pair of con artists who meet wealthy women through personal ads, steal their money and murder them. This may sound generic, but director Todd Robinson is less interested in noir mechanics than he is in chartering the creation and dissolution of the film's two central couples.So on one side of the film we have Travolta and Laura Dern, a pair of police officers who learn to push past the suicide of Travolta's ex wife and forge a romantic relationship together, whilst on the other side we have Martha and Raymond, a pair of romantically involved criminals who slowly degenerate into a pair of raging lunatics.What's interesting about the film is the way the two halves seem to exist in completely different time zones. Travolta's plot line is strictly modern noir, with all the appropriate updates, whilst Martha and Raymond seem to exist in a cartoon universe of 1930's gangster and (pre Hays Code) couples-on-the-run movies.Indeed, half the fun of the film is watching Raymond turn from a hilariously dapper con-man into a nervous wreck due to Martha's increasingly psychotic antics. She needs her con man lover to feign romantic interest in their marks, but throws jealous tantrums whenever he gets close. It's funny stuff, and at times quite bizarre.7.9/10 – The film works well when Raymond (marvellously played by Jared Leto) and Martha (Salma Hayak as a deliciously over-the-top femme fatale) are on screen. Travolta's plot line, however, is standard fare, the film eventually fizzling out to a rather lacklustre climax.Worth one viewing.