Perfect cast and a good story

In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.

It's easily one of the freshest, sharpest and most enjoyable films of this year.

The movie really just wants to entertain people.

This is another example of incomprehensible movies from the early seventies. Like "The parallax view" I reviewed.Movies are supposed to be entertaining, but these kind of movies are a pain in the head. You are trying to understand what is happening, but the director likes riddles to a very extreme extent. Most of the riddles are ill-founded by close up's, for instance, a tape running in a tape recorder, or a cigarette in an ashtray, multiple characters popping up from nowhere for no reason, as little information as possible given of characters, situations or hidden in such a way that you need to rewind multiple times. All to cover up that the story in fact is ridiculous. All has to be mysterious, but there is no suspense at all. I cannot identify with Klute because I know nothing about him. He is a wooden puppet. I do not understand the severe search for a certain Gruneman, from who we don't know anything. In fact we are fed very little information, only that a certain Gruneman has to be found. So for me this movie is a torture to sit out. One thing that makes sense for me is the transition of Bree from a call girl who can't feel anything, to a person that has feelings for Klute but even that feels fabricated.Why are so many scenes pitch-dark?Read no further, if you haven't seen it yet, because I will give a summary of the movie.SPOILERS!!People are babbling through a dinner...Suddenly, pay attention to the word suddenly, because things always seem to happen suddenly in this kind of movies.Suddenly, we see a row of women, tested like cows in a livestock market.John Klute is interrogated about the disappearance of a certain Thomas Gruneman. As well is Mrs. Gruneman. There is a meeting, by whom? to investigate the Gruneman case and they like Klute to do it. There is a call girl, who was under surveillance. The call girl remembered Gruneman from the mysterious letters. Gruneman may have been stalking this call girl. Why, how?, we don't know. By the way, the anonymous call girl was in the line of the tested girls.Suddenly we know the name of the call girl, Bree, because she is at the house of an unknown call girl caller, and we are witness of an embarrassing call girl-caller encounter. We see a day in the life of a call girl and suddenly John Klute is at her door, and next thing we see is Bree at an audition, because she likes to be an actress.We see a man unknown to us pouring drinks. A client of Bree. After a pathetic monologue from Bree we see a close up of John Klute. Bree is arguing with a woman unknown to us so far, but she is likely to be her psychiatrist. Suddenly Bree calls Klute, but we don't even know what happened last time when Klute was at her door. Klute has a tape recorder connected to his phone.Recordings from Bree are played. Then suddenly we see Bree with her pimp and a photographer, and the pimp appears to be: Klute, yes, undercover. The photographer is most likely her real pimp.Now the search is for a certain Arlyn Page, a junkie... Bree is acting with an Irish accent, just for fun I guess. Bree is scavenging through police photo's of dead girls. How did they get access to these photo's?Then the inevitably sexual encounter Klute-Bree, and suddenly they are an investigative team! Seventies disco and Bree goes into the arms of the pimp and Klute watches that.Klute reports to his boss and now they talk about a beating, who is beaten? Klute's boss listens to tapes of Bree and we see a photo of men on the moon...Klute goes to Bree, nothing is said, he puts her in bed. Next thing we see is Bree at the psychiatrist.O yes, now we are after Jane McKenna who is dead accordingly to Bree and Klute is at some weird evidence place, he found a necklace there I think.Body of Arlyn Page has been found by the police.Well, I have to say the scene on the market with Klute and Bree was very touching.So suddenly we know a name, Peter Cable, identified by comparing typewriter notes. It's the boss of Klute! Then we have a scene with Bree, Klute and her pimp. There is a fight between Klute and the pimp and Bree tries to stab Klute with scissors. Klute leaves and Bree is at her psychiatrist again, who is not there, then she calls Mr. Goldfarb, the mysterious client we have seen before.Then suddenly at the office of Mr. Goldfarb Klute's boss turns up and begins to confess 3 murders to Bree. He tries to murder Bree, but of course Klute is just in time and saves the day.Curtain.As we say in dutch when we hear a bunch of total nonsense: "Ik kan er geen chocolade van maken"I can't make chocolate of that.

This is such a good film because the portrayals are so realistic. Donald Sutherland has been reduced lately to playing quirky bad guys. We forget that early on he was a leading man playing complex characters. In this movie we were exposed to the world of prostitution for one of the first times. Jane Fonda is victimized by a man who is fixated on her. She is involved in the investigation of a disappearance and Sutherland is the cop, Klute, who is brought in to investigate. As they explore her situation, he begins to fall in love with her. He also begins to become invested in her life because other prostitutes are dying at the hand of the monster they are pursuing. While uncomfortable to watch, this is well worth our time to view.

I was never really all that big of a Jane Fonda fan, still if you are to see any movie of her's watch this 1971 picture called "Klute" as Jane glows and shines on screen in a best actress Oscar winning role. "Klute" is a tease film of suspense and mystery drama with themes of sex, lust, truth seeking and murder all of that is jammed into a plot that's a little hard to follow it can challenge a viewer so pay attention.Set in New York city the story centers around Bree(in one of Jane Fonda's best roles) who's a high class escort a call girl type who's life is full of secrets and it's ready to spin out of control, still Bree has wit and she's one sexy thing she's good at her job as her sessions with guys are like that of a socialite girlfriend type and to go with it she's blunt and outspoken with a sassy mouth. Her voice has been taped by a killer, so Bree had better watch out! Now enter detective John Klute(Donald Sutherland)who's hired as a private investigator to follow this case that involves a missing person and the murders of others. And along the way sparks of passion fly between him and Bree. You will be left asking questions who done it and wonder really what's going on as the film takes twist and turns. Overall really good picture of suspense, lust, and mystery that's carried by the performance of Jane Fonda.

Fine gritty dramatic mystery that gets the pulse of NYC in the early 70's just right. It becomes another character in the film which only strengths the picture and adds a certain creeping menace to it. While the movie pivots on the disappearance of a man it's really a character study of alienation with the investigation a peg to hang the main action on. Sutherland is fine as the inquiring detective John Klute but the film lives and dies on the character of Bree Daniels and Jane Fonda owns that part. Bree wants the world to believe she's one tough hard customer but as the film progresses it becomes more and more obvious that the bravado is a front. She displays raw, honest emotion in all her scenes but particularly in her therapy sequences. She shows so many layers to the character, including flashes of humor that Bree comes across as a real woman. Usually I try not to let appearance factor into my appraisal of a performance however that shag hairstyle is integral to the audience's acceptance of her as a tough call girl. Having moved forward and away from her initial image of the blonde cutie with her previous film, They Shoot Horses, Don't They?, she completely transforms herself in this. The soft blonde Jane Fonda of Barefoot in the Park or Barbarella of only a couple of years before would never be believable as Bree Daniels. The film was a major hit and she won her first Oscar for it. She was up against some excellent performances that year but she was the correct winner.Expertly directed by Pakula in his usual observant style this is a classic of '70's cinema. Highly recommended.