Review of Klute (1971) by Bill C — 24 Aug 2013

This is the first movie in Alan J. Pakula's loose thematic "paranoia trilogy," which later included The Parallax View and All the President's Men and which now seems to have really been on to something about the 1970s zeitgeist.

This is probably the weakest movie of the three, but it certainly has its strong elements. The somewhat murky story begins with a private detective named John Klute (Donald Sutherland) who begins investigating the disappearance of his friend in New York City.

His investigation leads him to a smart, disaffected prostitute (Jane Fonda), whose history with her clientele might help illuminate what happened to the detective's friend. Despite the mystery structure of the movie, neither the actual mystery nor the detective end up being that interesting; the plot revelations don't have that much impact, and Donald Sutherland seems like he doesn't care about anything in the movie, which is strange since he had just brought such great energy to M*A*S*H* the year before.

By far the best part of the movie is the prostitute played by Jane Fonda, a part for which she won a Best Actress Oscar. The character really seems like she could have carried her own movie; I would watch a drama just about her walking the streets.

Pakula's direction here is solid, though he would end up making more compelling movies later on. I would say the best way to watch this movie is just to pay attention to Fonda's character, and not worry too much about the other stuff.