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Prepare to see Salma Hayek like you’ve never seen her before in the new crime thriller Lonely Hearts starring John Travolta.

The film tells the true story of serial killers Martha Beck (Hayek) and Raymond Fernandez (Jared Leto) and their murder spree that took place in the late 1940s. John Travolta plays Detective Elmer C. Robinson — real-life grandfather of Lonely Hearts director and writer Todd Robinson — and his quest to find the con artist/killers who have swindled their way into the lives of lonely, helpless women, all the while trying to cope with the suicide of his own wife.

Fernandez is a smooth talking Casanova who writes love letters to single women that he contacts through the “Cupids Connection” classifieds. He charms and cons them out of money and then drops them like yesterdays news until he meets his match. Beck isn’t like the other innocent, naïve, non-attractive, well-off women. She’s broke, stunningly beautiful and knows how to use her sexuality to her advantage. But just like the others, Beck falls hard for Fernandez.

Fernandez and Beck transform into a Bonnie and Clyde-type of duo. He brings her along while he “works” on his victims, telling them that she is his sister. Though soon, Beck’s love for Fernandez interferes with his con-jobs. Beck can’t stand the sight of Fernandez with other women and her jealousy unleashes into a psychotic fury. That’s when the movie really gets good. Fernandez realizes that Beck has a major hold on him and he is literally too frightened by her to end the relationship. Detective Robinson is on their tail, trying to find the violent-duo before they kill their next victim.

The film contains some gruesome images, though are captured shockingly great. Hayek is amazing as insane Beck. Her beauty, as always is enrapturing, but her evilness is undeniably the only thing holding this movie together.

The cinematography and music in Lonely Hearts captures the essence of the 1940s. Though the A-listers like Travolta, Gandolfini, and Laura Dern completely missed their mark on this one. Their roles were completely clichéd. Travolta plays the typical detective with compassionate heart who gets back to investigating crimes after the death of wife and is struggling to have a relationship with his son (played convincingly well by Dan Byrd). It was interesting at times to watch Gandolfini, also the narrator of the film, play a cop, as oppose to the committer of crimes as he does so well in “The Sopranos,” though the dynamic between him and Travolta’s character was completely predictable.

All of these side characters, including Dern as the damsel in distress who wants Travolta to commit to a serious relationship, and Scott Cann as the wiseass little cop, were executed generically and lifeless. Hayek and Leto really steal the show as manipulative killers. Lonely Hearts is worth watching for Hayek and Leto alone.

Lonely Hearts is in theaters April 13