Lonely Hearts

Directed by Todd Robinson

Lonely Hearts is a tight, grisly true-crime drama based on the celebrated 1940s murder case against Raymond Fernandez and Martha Beck, who fleeced and killed lonely women. The pair were cold-blooded serial criminals who preyed on wealthy widows who had placed personal ads in local newspapers across the United States.

The case was solved in part by Detective Elmer C. Robinson, grandfather of writer/director Todd Robinson.

In acknowledging the familial tie, Todd says Elmer was usually a quiet man, but when he got around to talking, he was a great storyteller. Judging by this film, that talent was inherited. Lonely Hearts is a great story that’s brilliantly told.

The film’s focus is, of course, on Elmer, a tough cop whose life is changed by seeing this grim case through from start to finish. After witnessing the execution of Fernandez and Beck, he retired from the Nassau County Police Department and devoted his time to his family.

It’s evident that Todd loves and admires his grandfather. That said, his real success in telling Elmer’s story is that he presents the detective as a very complex, rather difficult man with serious personal issues. He then surrounds him with beautifully realized, fascinating characters—including fellow cops, the two criminals and, even, their victims—that command your attention. Robinson the Younger wrote a superb script that, by beautifully balancing plot with character, makes for an engaging, very satisfying cinematic experience.

The cast is superb: As Elmer, John Travolta’s quiet, restrained, seething performance reveals the inner conflicts of a troubled man teetering dangerously between personal conviction and self-doubt, someone whose search for facts seems to be mixed with personal exploration. Jared Leto and Salma Hayek are daring and treacherous as the lovers-turned-killers, revealing the impulses and manipulations of an emotionally askew pair whose desperate obsession for each other underpins their heinous socio-pathological behavior. As Elmer’s partner (and the film’s narrator), James Gandolfini deserves kudos for so skillfully fleshing out and making so likeable a character who got the primary responsibility of presenting exposition and providing some comic relief. As that essential wingman, Gandolfini serves with remarkable intelligence and subtlety.

Lonely Hearts’ subject matter, storyline and timeframe suggest the film’s style might be an homage to Noir or, on the other hand, the chance to make a shocking slice and dice. But Robinson’s gone in a different direction, smartly framing Lonely Hearts in almost-documentary style: no melodrama, no emotional musical cuing, no sensationalist and sleazy images.

Actually, Robinson based the film’s visual style on Bound for Glory: America in Color, a collection of color images taken across America from 1939-1943 by photographers employed by the Farm Security Administration and Department of War Information. Cinematographer Peter Levy deftly frames the film with his extraordinary sense of composition, color and point of view, while capturing all the gripping action and actors’ subtleties of character. The film is not only beautiful to look at, it convincingly recreates the period look and feel of 1940s America.