Klute (1971)

"Nonono, I totally respect you... for fifty bucks."

Genre: Crime Drama Mystery Thriller

Starring: Jane Fonda (On Golden Pod; The China Syndrome), Donald Sutherland (M*A*S*H; Invasion Of The Body Snatchers)

Directed By: Alan J. Pakula (All The President's Men; The Devil's Own)

Overview: When a small town southern family man goes missing, the investigation leads to Bree, a New York City callgirl. The private investigator finds himself embroiled all too closely in Bree's affairs.

Acting: Jane Fonda is amazing in this, and you know the whole Private Eye thing? This is not Film Noir, all that stuff doesn't apply, it's just a guy doing a job. He's not tough or hard or any of those lame stereotypes. You'll find that the acting is the best part of this film. The characters are rich and not typical at all. Terrific.
Rating: 9
Cinematography: The film was rather dark. By that I mean the film looked like it needed to be remastered or something because it seemed too dim all the time. Besides that the angles and places are pretty commonplace, nothing exciting. This is not what you're coming for, nothing spectacular at all.
Rating: 6

Script: The lines spoken by Bree (Fonda's character) are some of the most interesting, deep and revealing of any character ever written. Her character is completely amazing, without a doubt. The withdrawn character of Sutherland's prefers to let his actions speak for him, which is very effective. The writing for the climax was really intense. This was terrific.
Rating: 9

Plot: The idea of the romantic thriller is pretty cool. How often have you heard of that? Romance in a different way though, it's more real, more 'now' with no promise of endless love (both characters are too different and jaded for that). In that sense the plot is great, the story flows, the ties of loyalty are very loose, causing their own sub-plots. In the end though, I didn't find it that exciting a story overall. Not sure why. Not such a hot climax, but a good ending.
Rating: 7

Mood: I have issues with the ultra-jazz licks of the 70s music mixed in with the fashion and all the era stuff. It's definitely a period piece set in the glamorous early 70s. I actually found that distracting and tacky, all the open V-Neck shirts and crazy clothes. Accurate I'm sure, but too glitzy for me. As Mystery Thrillers go though, I enjoyed the tone.
Rating: 7

"But why would you leave? No one else looks so perfect as a pimp for you, look how open my shirt is!"

Overall Rating: 76% (Well, It's Not A BAD Film...)

Aftertaste: The 13th down on my list of 1001 Movies. I wasn't all that excited to see this one (except for the fact that I'm a movie freak). As I've said before, I can usually tell how I'm going to like a movie just from the cover and the tagline. My expectations were met with this one. That's that.