Vacancy/Lonely Hearts/In the Land of Women/Fracture

All the elements are there, including a great cast, but it doesn't  click, doesn't tear into you

Decide for yourself but I thought it was excellent.

John Travolta, Sean Penn, and Robin Wright in She's So Lovely (1997)

Anthony Hopkins and Nicole Kidman in The Human Stain (2003)

Christian Slater, Claire Forlani, and Jared Leto in Basil (1998)

Salma Hayek, Elijah Wood, Lara Flynn Boyle, David Hyde Pierce, Steve Zahn, and David Cross in Chain of Fools (2000)

John Travolta and Scarlett Johansson in A Love Song for Bobby Long (2004)

John Travolta and Joaquin Phoenix in Ladder 49 (2004)

Salma Hayek, John Travolta, Benicio Del Toro, Blake Lively, and Taylor Kitsch in Savages (2012)

Dustin Hoffman and John Travolta in Mad City (1997)

Nick Nolte and Nutsa Kukhianidze in The Good Thief (2002)

Salma Hayek, John Travolta, James Gandolfini, and Jared Leto in Lonely Hearts (2006)

Equity Pictures Medienfonds GmbH & Co. KG III

You know what they say about cops and donuts?

Neither one's any good without a hole in them.

Salma Hayek and Bailee Madison in Lonely Hearts (2006)

William H. Macy and James Gandolfini at an event for Lonely Hearts (2006)

John Travolta and James Gandolfini at an event for Lonely Hearts (2006)

John Travolta

Salma Hayek

Jared Leto

Todd Robinson

Based on the true story, two homicide detectives track Martha Beck and Raymond Martinez Fernandez, a murderous pair known as the &quot;Lonely Hearts Killers&quot; who lured their victims through the personals.

Lonely Hearts

A seductive noir but not much engaging

&quot;Lonely Hearts&quot; tells us the real story of the &quot;Lonely Hearts KIllers&quot;, the couple Martha Beck and Raymond Martinez (played by Salma Hayek and Jared Leto) and the police investigation conducted by an obstinate detective (John Travolta) recently traumatized with the unexplainable suicide of his wife. The couple&apos;s &quot;name&quot; came from the scam they practiced against lonely women who wanted to engage in a relationship with a man through adds on newspaper&apos;s personal columns.

Looks like 2006 was the year to rediscover the film noir. This came out on the same year as Brian De Palma&apos;s &quot;Black Dahlia&quot; but attracted less attention. With justice, that was a better film. &quot;Lonely Hearts&quot; presents a good story that pays some small reflection on people who were looking for something good, tried of everything to have a relationship but failed at that, being tricked into the unknown, letting themselves get fooled by looks and charm, and it&apos;s also a story about serial killers who take advantage of such situation to simply steal money and take away lives. It sounds very contemporary the small appeal the movie has, just think bigger how this plot would be treated today with the internet and new ways to meet people. We would have what we&apos;re get used to see in the news. 

Being &quot;accomplices&quot; of the couple in their spree of killing is interesting, wild, an exquisite relationship they have with each other (ironically, Raymond always make the con alone and he was about to try on Martha, who noticed it and started to help him); the background story for Travolta&apos;s character sometimes work, other times doesn&apos;t involve us at all, the investigation when made right works fine with some thrilling scenes. But the majority of scenes here is constantly showing the lack of cooperation between the detectives played by James Gandolfini (and his annoying voice-over) and Scott Caan. Why we&apos;re forced to watch them fight and play like kids all the time, what&apos;s the point? 

The acting deserves some credit, specially for Leto playing a character that rare young actors would like to play, sacrificing his good looks to appear less beautiful to the camera with a hair piece to hide his slightly baldness. He&apos;s a weak fella, someone who at first only wanted to get money from his victims to later be seduced by this woman who&apos;ll boss around him to make anything for her, including the murders of the worst kind. Hayek is a little over-the-top but she knows how to leave a good impression anyhow. Laura Dern is very good in the ungrateful role of the female detective who takes interest on poor Travolta, always trying to be more than just an affair.

For the most part, characters and the movie sink little by little into a dark corner, too much predictable but somehow it manages to not disappoint. Compared with &quot;Black Dahlia&quot; since both are film noir updates of the 21st century it fails for not being more clever, more intriguing. Clearly, De Palma had to imagine many unbelievable devices to present the story but at least it was great. Here, even if the story is very close to the truth, and the fact of the director being related to the main character doesn&apos;t count much. To quote Kubrick: &quot;It is real but it&apos;s not interesting&quot;. 6/10

Official Trailer

https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BOWU5ZWY4ZmEtNTkxMi00MzYyLWJlODctMTAzYzMwNWRhOWI3XkEyXkFqcGdeQXRyYW5zY29kZS13b3JrZmxvdw@@._V1_.jpg

"Lonely Hearts" tells us the real story of the "Lonely Hearts KIllers", the couple Martha Beck and Raymond Martinez (played by Salma Hayek and Jared Leto) and the police investigation conducted by an obstinate detective (John Travolta) recently traumatized with the unexplainable suicide of his wife. The couple's "name" came from the scam they practiced against lonely women who wanted to engage in a relationship with a man through adds on newspaper's personal columns.

Looks like 2006 was the year to rediscover the film noir. This came out on the same year as Brian De Palma's "Black Dahlia" but attracted less attention. With justice, that was a better film. "Lonely Hearts" presents a good story that pays some small reflection on people who were looking for something good, tried of everything to have a relationship but failed at that, being tricked into the unknown, letting themselves get fooled by looks and charm, and it's also a story about serial killers who take advantage of such situation to simply steal money and take away lives. It sounds very contemporary the small appeal the movie has, just think bigger how this plot would be treated today with the internet and new ways to meet people. We would have what we're get used to see in the news. 

Being "accomplices" of the couple in their spree of killing is interesting, wild, an exquisite relationship they have with each other (ironically, Raymond always make the con alone and he was about to try on Martha, who noticed it and started to help him); the background story for Travolta's character sometimes work, other times doesn't involve us at all, the investigation when made right works fine with some thrilling scenes. But the majority of scenes here is constantly showing the lack of cooperation between the detectives played by James Gandolfini (and his annoying voice-over) and Scott Caan. Why we're forced to watch them fight and play like kids all the time, what's the point? 

The acting deserves some credit, specially for Leto playing a character that rare young actors would like to play, sacrificing his good looks to appear less beautiful to the camera with a hair piece to hide his slightly baldness. He's a weak fella, someone who at first only wanted to get money from his victims to later be seduced by this woman who'll boss around him to make anything for her, including the murders of the worst kind. Hayek is a little over-the-top but she knows how to leave a good impression anyhow. Laura Dern is very good in the ungrateful role of the female detective who takes interest on poor Travolta, always trying to be more than just an affair.

For the most part, characters and the movie sink little by little into a dark corner, too much predictable but somehow it manages to not disappoint. Compared with "Black Dahlia" since both are film noir updates of the 21st century it fails for not being more clever, more intriguing. Clearly, De Palma had to imagine many unbelievable devices to present the story but at least it was great. Here, even if the story is very close to the truth, and the fact of the director being related to the main character doesn't count much. To quote Kubrick: "It is real but it's not interesting". 6/10

Based on the true story, two homicide detectives track Martha Beck and Raymond Martinez Fernandez, a murderous pair known as the "Lonely Hearts Killers" who lured their victims through the personals.

bappamtv

Lonely Hearts

🎭 Top Cast

💰 Box Office

🎬 Technical Specs

🏷️ Keywords

🎯 Categories

⭐ Featured Review

💡 Did You Know?

🎬 More Like This

📖 Synopsis