Lonely Hearts from 2006, viewed last night for my sometimes-weekly movie night with friend Jay. Directed by Todd Robinson, starring John Travolta, James Gandolfini, Jared Leto, and Salma Hayek, and featuring Scott Caan, Laura Dern among others

This is the based-on-a-true story of a detective who is obsessed with pursuing and catching a pair of killers who find lonely women through personal ads, fleece them of their savings, and leave bodies in their wake. Travolta’s character is supposedly egged on by a personal tragedy in his own past. The movie touches on his personal and professional trials while telling the story of the criminals and the chase.

It was well done, I suppose, but somehow never really captivated me; it seemed to be mostly just a bunch of things that happened. There was an odd style of presentation that I can only describe as “stuttering” – where there would be a line of dialog or a sequence that seem abruptly at odds with what surrounded it. Occasionally you need to know a little bit about what comes later in the story to understand a bit of dialog or action, but I don’t consider that a minus — more of a plus, really. Salma Hayek and, to a lesser extent, Jared Leto were the best parts of the film.

This is a retelling of the same story presented in the movie The Honeymoon Killers from 1970, which has been on my want-to-see list for quite a while.