"Lonely Hearts" is predictable, repetitive, and depressing. It plays like a primer for low self esteem. Beverly D'Angelo not only has an overeating disorder, but is so desperate and unhappy that she latches onto gigolo con man Eric Roberts, and the two proceed to bilk more lonely widows. Police involvement is excluded at the expense of believability as Roberts murders two of his female marks with zero investigations. I really lost interest in this one early on, and except for totally acceptable acting by Eric Roberts and Beverly D'Angelo, would have lived with the fast forward button. It's low budget and it really shows with the simplified script. - MERK
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merklekranz14 September 2013
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spoken27 March 2005Eric Roberts as Frank ... Beverly D'Angelo as Alma ... Joanna Cassidy as Erin Randall
In short, a con-man, Frank, sets his sights on a woman with obsessive behavior traits, Alma, who turns Frank's emotional tables by becoming obsessed with him. Alma's need for Frank's affection is so great she willingly takes part in his con games perpetrated on other women. Enter a rather statuesque private detective, Erin, who goes above and beyond the call of duty to "save" Alma before the con-man gets caught by authorities. And because this is a dramatic thriller, obviously, it has some requisite transformation of characters.
A slowly weeping, eerily lilting violin set the mood for me; I got hooked to the music and couldn't turn the channel. On the other hand, I really can't begrudge the other users their gripes; I had to tolerate some things to get the goods from the rest of the movie. And I found myself occasionally turning to do other things while listening from a distance. But I did eyeball most of it, and I can honestly say Eric Roberts looks positively delicious when wet.
Having seen a movie just yesterday with amateurish acting, I have to say all the acting in "Lonely Hearts" was first-rate; nothing stood out as second-rate, and all the characters were believable. I thought the atmosphere was just this side of Hitchcockian, and none of the sets looked contrived.
My vote of 8 represents my "personal" feelings about the entertainment value compared to other movies I've seen. I do not pretend to know what is good for others. But I do recommend this movie as a light-weight crossover to anyone who likes dramas and/or thrillers. -
It seems extraordinary that the producer was able to attract these superb actors to this movie - a script that needed to get deeper into the characters than it did and sometimes seemed to avoid evolution. Yet the acting lifted a "woman as victim" melodrama starring Beverly D'Angelo to something more. D'Angelo's ability to convey someone with little self-esteem, her grabbing at something hopeful, her lust, her confusion - were so vividly portrayed. D'Angelo is one of the finest actresses anywhere.
Joanna Cassidy is also a wonderful actress who lends some interest to a standard role. She and D'Angelo look very right together in their respective roles. Cassidy, the self-confident private detective, is tall, lanky and strong-looking - given to wearing jeans. D'Angelo, the lonely obsessive lacking self-esteem, is soft, shorter, voluptuous verging on plump, and wears very feminine clothes except at low ebb when she dons sweats. The viewer is reminded how beautiful both women are - both have stunning eyes.
The director uses food interestingly - when D'Angelo is abstaining from rich foods, she's moving away from Roberts -when indulging, she's in his clutches.
Eric Roberts is quite good as the vulnerable ladies' con man who never means to kill. The screenwriter does a poor job with his character. Each time he appears to suffer remorse, he takes actions that don't bear any relation to the remorse. The script seems to jump about in dealing with him. In fact, the poor treatment of this character is probably the greatest weakness in the movie.
The climax is terribly predictable - which is unfortunate. In its desire to satisfy the audience, it simply serves up the usual dessert.
AS the other person commented, this movie is worth watching for its performances D'Angelo is simply superb, Cassidy somehow makes one interested when she's on the screen, and Roberts is dandy. I'd recommend it. -
mrskywalker9 April 2001This about a con man and a nice girl. This a low budget film with a number of hot teasing scenes. The acting almost turns this into a good film. It's worth a look if you like B movies. D'angelo has a real individual style and other acting is good in this tale of the slippery slope.
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CherCee13 September 2019This is the story of Martha Beck and Raymond Fernandez, who met in 1947 when he was trying to con her. She ended up joining his con using lonely hearts magazines. She dumped her children at a Salvation Army in 1948 to be with him and from 1948-1949 they went on their con-and-killing spree. They were caught in 1949 after killing a woman and her 2-year-old daughter. They had also killed two other women. They were executed by Old Sparky in Sing Sing on the same day in 1951. She was 31 and he was 36. There was another movie named Lonely Hearts (2006) made about this case with Jared Leto (Raymond), Salma Hayek (Martha - who really looks absolutely nothing like the real Martha Beck!!), John Travolta (Det. Robinson), Laura Dern (Rene - John's girlfriend), and James Gandolfi (Det. Hilderbrandt) heading the cast. There are also turns by Scott Caan (James' son), Ellen and Sam Travolta (two of John's siblings), and Jason Gray-Stanford (from Monk).
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vchimpanzee16 February 2003I didn't know what this movie was about ahead of time, but it looked like it would get interesting. It never did. Beverly D'Angelo plays a woman who posed as the sister of a con man who is actually her boyfriend. It appeared he was losing interest in her when he found out her mother owned the house she lived in. Other than that, I never was clear on what was happening. Some people lost their money to these two, several people got killed, and at the end of two hours I felt I had wasted my time.