Synopsis
In the late 1940s, a murderous couple known as the 'The Lonely Hearts Killers' kills close to a dozen people. Two detectives try to nab the duo who find their targets via the personals in the paper.
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Cast
- John TravoltaElmer Robinson
- James GandolfiniDet. Charles Hilderbrandt
- Jared LetoRay Fernandez
- Salma Hayek PinaultMartha Beck
- Scott CaanDet. Reilly
- Laura DernRene Fodie
- Michael GastonD.A. Hunt
- Dan ByrdEddie Robinson
- Alice KrigeJanet Long
- Dagmara DomińczykDelphine Downing
Recommendations
- 80
Variety
Todd Robinson constructs a riveting thriller. - 70
Los Angeles Times
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. - 70
The New York Times
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." - 67
Entertainment Weekly
Lonely Hearts never locates the key to the killers' bloody bond. - 67
Christian Science Monitor
Travolta gives a hangdog performance as the world-weary cop obsessed with rooting out the killers. Hayek and Leto share a few tart black comic moments as the film spirals into a bloodbath. - 63
TV Guide Magazine
While Travolta and Gandolfini have the beefy, closed-off look of post-WWII era cops, they never FEEL: They look like actors playing dress up. Leto overcomes his delicate good looks to embody Fernandez's feral, faintly exotic charm, but Hayek is a standard-issue femme fatale, damaged on the inside but flawless on the surface. - 60
Salon
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. - 60
The Hollywood Reporter
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.
