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.
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.