Lonely Hearts (2006)
LONELY HEARTS (2006)"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."
Lonely Hearts (2006)
However, my general rule of thumb is that these white lies are forgivable as long the filmmaking behind them is solid, which is why Lonely Hearts (2006) works as a detective story despite the creative liberties its writer/director takes with the source material.
A remake of 1970's The Honeymoon Killers, LONELY HEARTS follows Long Island police detectives Elmer Robinson (John Travolta) and Charles Hildebrandt (James Gandolfini) as they chase down real-life killers Ray Fernandez (Jared Leto) and Martha Beck (Salma Hayek). The pair conned lonely women in the 1940s and, after milking them of their money and breaking their hearts, murdered them.
Based on the true story, two homicide detectives track Martha Beck (Salma Hayek) and Raymond Martinez Fernandez (Jared Leto), a murderous pair known as the "Lonely Hearts Killers" who lured lonely women as their victims through the personals.
In a story that could be called uglier than Bonnie and Clyde, America's notorious "Lonely Hearts Killers" Martha Beck (Salma Hayek) and Ray Fernandez (Jared Leto) committed as many as 20 murders during the late 1940's. With Martha posing as Ray's sister, the lovers would respond to the personal ads of war widows and spinsters. Showering the lonely women with attention, Ray would gain their confidence and then the pair would swindle them out of their savings, often killing them when their game was over. Several books and films have chronicled these killers, but this latest film focuses on two New York detectives. Elmer C. Robinson (John Travolta) and Charles Hildebrandt (James Gandolfini) from the Nassau County Police Department begin investigating one of the murders, and the case gets personal. Robinson, who is struggling with his wife's recent suicide, sees the case as a way to answer questions of accountability, and to better understand his relationship with his son. Together the partners slowly put together the pieces of this gruesome puzzle and determine that this was not an isolated murder, but one of many. Add to the already stellar cast list Laura Dern as Robinson's secret love interest who is fighting for a place in Robinson's life. Todd Robinson follows every bizarre, gruesome, kinky twist leading up to the capture of the notorious serial killers. Lonely Hearts looks into the darkness of isolation, vulnerability, and unexplained cruelty and shines a light. 041b061a72