Possible Spoilers. This is the 3rd version of the Lonely Hearts serial killers saga. Raymond Fernandez and Martha Beck were two sickos who murdered many women during the 1940's and were finally caught and executed in 1949. Although not without interest the other two accounts of this creepy grim tale, The Honeymoon Killers and the Mexican film Deep Crimson are much better. This time around the story is seen mostly from the point of view of the detectives who were investigating the crimes and they are played by John Travolta and James Gandolfini both of who wear terrible toupees that really take away from their performances. In a film that has rather nice production values, I don't understand why more attention was not paid to their hair pieces. The killers are played by this time by Jared Leto and to my mind a very miscast Salma Hayek. The real Martha Beck was an unattractive overweight horror and I don't really understand why they cast a beautiful woman like Hayek in the role. Maybe it was a bit of perversion on the part of the screenwriter-director. Anyway this choice of casting takes away from the grimness of the story. Leto was a better choice as Raymond Fernandez, but if you want to see two really great performances check out Regina Orozco in Deep Crimson and Shirley Stoller in The Honeymoon Killers.
Review of Lonely Hearts
