Known as Part of the Paranoia Trilogy from Director Pakula, it is perhaps the the Third Tier only because the other Two are so Good; "The Parallax View" (1974) and "All the President's Men" (1976).Jane Fonda (Best Actress Oscar) and Donald Sutherland lead a Good Cast with Roy Scheider and Charles Cioffi contributing to the Film's Mood. Moody it is. Gritty Realism Framed in a Foreboding Feeling of Early 70's NYC with its Counterculture, Drugs, and Freewheeling Philosophies. Pakula knows that there are Villains about, from the High-Rise to the Gutter and They bring with Them an Atmosphere of Dread.Dark in Subject Matter and Visualizations, it's a Creepy Affair using the New Found Freedom of Non-Code Hollywood "Letting it all hang out.". Subjects only Previously Hinted are In Your Face and Central to the Theme. Gripping in its Truth Telling and Combined with a Neo-Noir Style make this one of the more Memorable Offerings in the Time Period. It's a Time when All Hell was Breaking Loose from the Conventional with Expected Degrees of both the Positive and the Negative. This Fine Film Explores both Ends of the Spectrum.

"Klute" appealed to me as a crime thriller (and with Alan Pakula's name attached, you know it's going to be good), and I'll freely admit that it took me a while into the movie's running time to realize that's not what the movie's really about. First off, Jane Fonda owns this movie (Sutherland, despite top billing and a title named for his character is the supporting player). It's really about her call girl character's feeling trapped in a world for which she has no love; the self-loathing and uncertainty, her very mental state are what make this an interesting character. And calling it a memorable performance is putting it lightly. In a movie that deserves attention for its lighting, atmosphere and twisty narrative, you can't get her out of your head.7/10

"Klute" tries to be two different things, is better at one than the other, but does neither amazingly well.When the movie begins, it's a thriller about a policeman going freelance to help track down a missing family friend. The only lead he has to go on is a connection the missing man seemed to have with a New York prostitute, Bree Daniels (Jane Fonda).When the policeman, played by Donald Sutherland, encounters Fonda, the movie becomes a strange love story, bolstered by a character study of the Fonda character. She's a hooker who wants to quit and become an actress, but is addicted to the sense of power and satisfaction her day job provides her with. She acts, flawlessly, with each man, discovering what they want and becoming it. Scenes with a psychiatrist reveal Fonda's hidden vulnerability, that her aloofness and cynicism mask a fundamental need she has that prostituting herself addresses and acting for the screen may not.This is, indeed, another great performance by Fonda, similar to her earlier turn in the classic "They Shoot Horses, Don't They?" So why is the movie called "Klute"? We find out very little about Sutherland's role. It is clear that he is an honourable man who wants the best for this woman he is entrusted to, but we don't find out very much else about him.The movie is only a thriller in the way it begins and ends. At the end I was past caring; the thriller aspect seemed foreign to Bree Daniel's story.It is superior as a love story, simply because we get more Fonda that way. But it's still not perfect: aren't love stories supposed to be about two people? Klute is too distant, we don't see enough of him to understand why Fonda would really develop feelings for this man.There are reminders throughout the movie that we are supposed to be watching a thriller. They take us by surprise because they are so out of place. Fonda's performance is worth the price of admission, but be prepared to sit through some extraneous content before you get to it.

Six months after the disappearance of one of his employees boss Peter Cable (Charles Cloffi) hires a private investigator John Klute (Donald Sutherland) to investigate his disappearance. However, John's only links to the employees disappearance are some seedy letters and a call-girl Bree Daniel (Jane Fonda) who has a connection to the missing person.Klute is one of those films that does hook you in at the start (as indeed any good mystery film does), but sadly it's an example of a film where I found myself gradually losing more and more interest as it trundles along. The film is very poorly paced and simply isn't exciting, suspenseful or compelling enough to make it truly stand out from the crowd. The film is OK when it focuses on the mystery, but loses focus far too often with some unnecessary scenes - examples of this include Bree's psychiatry sessions and although they offer insight in to her as a person they also seem to focus on her feelings towards Klute. To me, it would have been better if more time would have been focused on the mystery at hand as opposed to their clichéd and contrived romance. I note that Jane Fonda won an Oscar here and whilst I don't mean to discredit her (I did think she was very good here), I couldn't help but feel that she perhaps stood out more here because of how poor everyone else was - Donald Sutherland was lifeless here and I'm unsure whether this is his fault or down to how the writers have asked him to portray his character, but either way he was dull. I wasn't expecting a crazy performance here, but I thought that there may have been a bit of a rapport or a bit of chemistry between Sutherland and Fonda, but it just wasn't there and it left the film feeling a bit flat and unfulfilled.As I've mentioned the mystery element is OK, but it isn't what I'd call compelling or edge of your seat, but it has just about enough going to make it worth watching (although I thought the final act was terrible). The only other really good thing about this film (other than Jane Fonda) was Michael Small's score which did help to create tension and suspense where the script was failing to deliver the same.Klute is a film that pretty much does everything right, but it always felt like it was doing it in a half-hearted way. Aside from Fonda's performance and Small's score everything else felt rather mediocre and distinctly average across the board.