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Klute Movie Review

Klute is a 1971 crime thriller film directed by Alan J. Pakula and starring Jane Fonda and Donald Sutherland. It’s a flawed, but very well acted, memorable movie.

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“Don’t feel bad about losing your virtue.

I sort of knew you would. Everybody always does“

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It follows a high-priced prostitute who assists a detective in solving a missing persons case. In that premise alone, you can see that this movie is very much a 70s flick through and through for better and for worse. Overall, the plot is intriguing and mostly well crafted, but it could have been better done, especially in terms of pacing.

Yes, the film has so many of those non-scenes where nothing happens and those made the movie unfortunately quite stalling. I also found the pairing of these two problematic. I wanted them to remain in a strictly professional relationship, but alas, they started this very unbelievable, rushed and badly written romance.

But individually speaking, they are excellent. Donald Sutherland is very good as John Klute, but the film being titled after him was ridiculous having in mind the movie is Bree’s in entirety. Yes, Bree Daniels is an instantly memorable, superbly developed character that is very well written as this woman that is not helpless, but also isn’t super competent, thus highly realistic, especially for the seventies. Her feelings about the job of prostitution itself are so well established and complex as are her interactions with every man in the film.

Roy Scheider is memorable in a smaller role, and Charles Cioffi is suitably creepy as the movie’s villain. Speaking of the villain, the ending is undoubtedly messy and abrupt in how it all went out, but it’s also most definitely effective in thrills, very creepy and even disturbing in the playing of the tape, which was done in such a suspenseful manner. I wish the rest of the movie was as intense as unfortunately this thriller ain’t all that thrilling at the end of the day, though the music is great, but more on that later.

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Donald Sutherland was very prolific and popular during this period and the same goes for Jane Fonda herself. She ended up winning the Oscar for this role, and I couldn’t agree more with the Academy’s choice this time around. This is her career-best performance – she shines so brightly through and through, especially in monologue scenes. She makes you glued to the screen with her very effective facial expressions, interesting wardrobe and a complex personality, and she makes the film much better overall.

Klute is technically a very interesting film that tries to emulate the noir aesthetic and it does manage to do that pretty well, though the end result is clearly a product from the seventies. It’s a dark film in its look, but it has its brighter elements such as the aforementioned wardrobe, thus making for a very well established contrast.

The movie is also tremendously scored. The score is so great, in fact, that it makes the film much more intense than it would have been otherwise, especially in the first act where you could sense that something bad is going to happen due to that chilling score. The dark atmosphere is excellent, the dialogue is interesting and the characterization is solid, but the ending is messy and I wish that the film made a better use of its villains and thriller scenes.

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Jane Fonda almost single-handedly carried the entirety of Klute on her very capable shoulders. Yes, Bree Daniels is an instantly memorable character so well written and developed. Fonda made her all the more complex due to her gripping, scene-stealing performance that was rightfully honored with an Academy Award. As for the movie itself, its dark atmosphere is quite effective, the cinematography is strong, the villain is creepy and the score is very suspenseful. However, the ending, although memorable, is highly abrupt, and the whole film is badly paced and not thrilling enough. On a side note, it’s one of the worst, perplexingly titled movies that is all about Bree, and yet it’s called Klute for some ridiculous reason or another.

My Rating – 4

You can get the criterion collection of Klute on Amazon.