Lonely Hearts
Year: | 2006 |
Production Co: | Milllennium Films |
Director: | Todd Robinson |
Producer: | Boaz Davidson |
Writer: | Todd Robinson |
Cast: | John Travolta, James Gandolfini, Salma Hayek, Jared Leto, Scott Caan, Laura Dern |
With a cast like Travolta, Gandolfini, Hayek and Leto, you'd think this film was A- list material regardless of the story, but that's pretty good too.
Based on a true story, it's about a two-bit conman (Leto) who makes his living meeting lonely women through lonely hearts columns, wooing them out of their fortunes. But his latest target (Hayek) has him pegged. She's a seemingly innocent vixen who straight away gets her seductive claws into him and proposes they collaborate, her posing as his sister and upping the ante which soon includes psychotic jealousy and murder.
The dogged and damaged cop on their tails is played by Travolta, who's lost his wife to suicide and is quickly losing his son to alienation while stumbling to form a human connection again with his sometime lover (Dern). His partner (Gandolfini) can only look on as he spirals into obsession with the case.
It's a profane and violent noir thriller, all the performances are good, the production slick and it's not nearly the straight-to-video dross you think it'll be.