Salma Hayek in a Killer Role

Back in 2006, I was the weekly film critic entertainment contibutor on Whoopi Goldberg's national weekday early morning radio show. It was a live broadcast out of New York City. During that time, I saw a movie that got a little bitty amount of publicity. You know how John Travolta has gained an amount of fame for making clunker movies that are so bad, instead of saying they were released, you want to say they escaped? Well, this movie seemed to be dropkicked into that category. In New York City, it played for two weeks at an arthouse theater down in the Village. The movie has a film noir flavor. Overall, is this film as fully delicious as DOUBLE INDEMNITY or BODY HEAT? No. Still, what grabbed me by the collar and held my attention was the feverishly sexy, lethal beauty performance delivered by Salma Hayek.

LONELY HEARTS, a brief 2006 release, stars John Travolta, James Gandolfini and Scott Caan as detectives. The detectives have a certain drama going on in their work relationship while on the trail of two serial killers. The killers are the real-life crazy couple we saw portrayed in the fine 1970 black and white crime thriller, THE HONEYMOON KILLERS, starring Shirley Stoler as Martha Beck and Tony Lo Bianco as Ray Fernandez. Beck and Fernandez are given a different interpretation here. This was the movie that made me realize Jared Leto had some serious acting chops. He'd go on to win a Best Supporting Actor Oscar for 2013's DALLAS BUYERS CLUB. Salma Hayek's blistering boldness, her manipulative psychotic sexiness as Martha, sets the screen on fire. LONELY HEARTS came and went quickly in very few theaters. You can stream it now on YouTube or Amazon. If you're a Salma Hayek fan, check out this film and let me know what you think. Go on YouTube and look for LONELY HEARTS trailers that give you a grittier taste of the movie.