530. KLUTE (1971)

Running Time: 114 minutes
Directed By: Alan J. Pakula
Written By: Andy Lewis, Dave Lewis
Main Cast: Donald Sutherland, Jane Fonda, Charles Cioffi, Roy Scheider, Dorothy Tristan
Click here to view the trailer

Note: So my wife and I made a trip out to Millersburg, OH on Tuesday to pick up a new puppy. This is the same place where we bought our first dog and despite the first dog having health problems, we still trusted this place, as it's run by a very nice Amish man who seems on the level. Plus, they come highly recommended by a lot of people, so there's that. Any way, we ended up coming home with a three month old, female shih tzu named Emma. Very cute dog and hopefully she can fill the hole that the first one left. Anyway, it's been rough going trying to get movies watched. Trips outside every hour to house break a puppy doesn't make it easy to watch a movie. We ended up finshing Foxcatcher (2014) after about twelve sittings and today, we made it through Klute in about two or three. Anyway...on with the show...

70s PARANOIA

Since it seems to be taking two - three days turnaround time to get Netflix discs nowadays, I managed to nab a few of THE BOOK movies off of TCM, during their 31 Days of Oscar movie-thon. This is one of those movies, with Papillon, Z and All the President's Men waiting for my viewing (hopefully) pleasure.

The film begins by cluing us in on the disappearance of Tom Gruneman, a successful business executive from Pennsylvania who up and vanished six months ago. The police and FBI have extinguished their resources trying to find him and now the Gruneman family, namely Mrs. Gruneman and Tom's partner Peter Cable, want to send their own man in to find Tom - enter John Klute (Sutherland). Klute is a somewhat cornfed, Pennsylvania boy who barely has any experience as a P.I. and even less experience navigating the big city of New York. Why New York? Because an obscene letter found in Tom's office is addressed from a call girl from the Big Apple - Bree Daniels (Fonda) and that's the best lead Klute has to go on. Klute travels to the city and immediately rents an apartment in Daniels', an aspiring actress, apartment, tapping her phone and hounding her for answers. Daniels doesn't take kindly to Klute at first, but as silent phone calls and a constant fear of being followed haunt her, she turns to Klute for protection, as it becomes increasingly clear that Daniels wasn't involved in the disappearance of Tom Gruneman. In fact, Klute's questions lead him on the trail of one of Daniel's johns, a dominatrix type, abusive man, who may or may not be Tom Gruneman or the man who knows where Tom is. It actually becomes apparent early on (whether it was intentional or not) who the real culprit is, but I won't spoil that here, just in case it was meant to be a surprise.

SPOILER ALERT!

I love me some Sutherland and actually, despite not being a big fan of hers, I'll even admit that Fonda was fine here (and never looked better either, I might add), but damn, for a movie that should've been filled with suspense, intrigue and nail biting moments, this was dullsville! Like I said, the killer is pretty much revealed within the first forty five minutes as Peter Cable and it's no big shocker that, when the ending comes around, he's finally revealed as the man behind the death of Tom Gruneman. However, even if it hadn't been predictable, the Peter character wasn't major enough to provide any kind of good ending, even if it had been built up as some super secret, big reveal. It's a shame that a 1970s film starring Donald Sutherland and featuring a smokin' hot Jane Fonda and even Roy Scheider in a supporting role, left me wanting more, as it should've been a clear hit with me.

I will say, however, I'll still give the film good marks because it was better than most of the films I saw from 2014 and it possessed an atmosphere that I was keen on. A sometimes groovy, sometimes eerie score that accented the skyscrapers of New York City and accompanied the characters of a private dick and a hooker brilliantly. Add to that a theme of voyeurism, complete with tapped phones and prowlers on roof tops and it was hard not to somewhat get lost in this film, despite wanting a lot more out of it. I feel like EVERYTHING (acting, score, atmosphere) were all calling for a much better script, filled with loads more tension and even some better dialogue, but it was nothing doing as we marched toward a predictable, *blah* finale.

RATING: 6/10  Call it a better than average movie that, with a better script, could've been an easy '10/10'.

MOVIES WATCHED: 913
MOVIES LEFT TO WATCH: 88

March 5, 2015  6:34pm