Lonely Hearts

Name: Lonely Hearts
Genre: Drama, Thriller, Romance, Crime
Released: April 13, 2007
Duration: 108 min
Rating: 60
Cast: Jared Leto, John Travolta, Salma Hayek

2007

METASCORE

Mixed or average reviews based on 14 Critic Reviews

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USER SCORE

Generally favorable reviews based on 18 Ratings

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7.2	User Score Generally favorable reviews based on 18 Ratings

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Lonely Hearts

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Movie Details & Credits

Millennium Films | Release Date: April 13, 2007 | R

Starring: Jared Leto, John Travolta, Salma Hayek

Summary: Lonely Hearts is a vivid retelling of the real life murder spree of Martha Beck and Raymond Fernandez (America's notorious "Lonely Hearts Killers") and its connection to the tragic story of Detective Elmer C. Robinson who helped capture the killers but lost his wife in the process. (Millennium Films)

Director: Todd Robinson

Genre(s): Drama, Thriller, Romance, Crime

Rating: R

Runtime: 108 min

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Critic Reviews

Ronnie Scheib

Todd Robinson constructs a riveting thriller. Read full review

Stephen Holden

As fictional characters in a movie that is fetishistic in its attention to period detail, Mr. Leto and Ms. Hayek work well together as an unsavory couple two rungs down the social ladder from Fred MacMurray and Barbara Stanwyck in "Double Indemnity." Read full review

Alex Chun

While not much of a detective story, Robinson's period film does provide a captivating look at the dynamics that turn Fernandez and Beck into serial killers. Read full review

Peter Travers

The intensity of Leto and Hayek goes deeper than the script into revealing what makes these two sociopaths in heat impervious to bloody murder. When Hayek and Leto are onscreen, you do not look away. Read full review

Andrew O'Hehir

A handsome and well-acted film -- if you like that bitten-off, half-Hemingway style -- but also a grim, emotionally strangled one with a strong sadistic current, no genuinely likable characters and almost no humor. Read full review

Frank Scheck

While the duo's crimes were indeed sensational, writer-director Todd Robinson's starry take on the material fails to provide much in the way of a new perspective. Read full review

Stephanie Zacharek

Hayek, with that old-time movie-star pout, those dark, reflective eyes (they could be Satan's twin swimming pools), is the shivery, chilling backbone of Lonely Hearts. Martha Beck couldn't get away with murder. But Salma Hayek can. Read full review

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User Reviews

JayM.

Apr 8, 2008

Criminally overlooked noir.

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MarieM.

Aug 21, 2007

Unfortunately, Selam Hayack can't act. When that's combined with her being incredibly badly miscast in this role, it's a disaster. The real-life character her role is based on was a morbidly obese woman. If they'd cast someone appropriate - say, somone who coudld, I Unfortunately, Selam Hayack can't act. When that's combined with her being incredibly badly miscast in this role, it's a disaster. The real-life character her role is based on was a morbidly obese woman. If they'd cast someone appropriate - say, somone who coudld, I don't know - ACT - the movie really could have worked. The rest of the cast was there and the script wasn't tbad. Instead, Hayack is walking around around in the same red lipstick she wears in every movie being Selma Hayack and it's impossible to forget who she is. It's a shame, too, because Jared Leto is really, really good here.… Expand

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HotelCentral

Jan 12, 2020

The problem with this film is that it can't decide if it's a detective flick, a caper flick, or a Lifetime TV soap opera character study. Travolta plays a police detective haunted by his wife's suicide and what that's all about I don't know because as I'm writing this I haven't finished theThe problem with this film is that it can't decide if it's a detective flick, a caper flick, or a Lifetime TV soap opera character study. Travolta plays a police detective haunted by his wife's suicide and what that's all about I don't know because as I'm writing this I haven't finished the film because I don't think I can endure it.

Why the film pretends to be set on Long Island (filmed in Florida) I can't say and I'm not inclined to spend the time to find out. The main point of interest, for me, is discovering that the real-life Fernandez and Beck were executed in Sing-Sing by the same guy who executed accused spies Julius and Ethel Rosenberg. His name was Joe Francel and he was an electrician when not serving as NY's official executioner from 1939 to 1953. He's said to have executed 137 people at $150 a pop, which is pretty good money for the forties. You can look him up.

As to "Lonely Hearts," by comparison, I make no particular recommendation.

P.S.: Another reviewer correctly points out that the real-life Beck was no glamorous Hollywood actress and in fact was rather overweight, as opposed to the screen version of Beck, played by Selma Hayek.… Expand

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