By Richard Winters
My Rating: 8 out of 10
4-Word Review: Detective falls for prostitute.
John Klute (Donald Sutherland) is a private detective who is hired by Peter Cable (Charles Cioffi) to investigate the disappearance of a CEO named Gruneman (Robert Milli). The only clue is an obscene letter found in Gruneman’s office that he wrote to a prostitute named Bree (Jane Fonda). When Klute initially tries to question her, she refuses to help, so he rents an apartment in her building, which allows him to bug her phone. Eventually the two become friendly and even form a bit of a relationship, but Bree is only able to offer a few clues mainly that one of the johns she saw two years ago who used Gruneman’s name beat her up, but when he shows her a picture of the real Gruneman she says he wasn’t the one. This forces Klute along with Bree’s help to try and track down the other prostitute’s that had seen the same john, but their efforts prove mostly futile even as the unidentified killer continues to stalk Bree and appears ready to close in.
Sometimes it’s hard to tell from a script, which was written by two brothers, if it’s going to make for a good movie, or not. This is clearly a great example for how it’s approached directorially can make all the difference. In other hands this could’ve been a blah programmer, but director Alan J. Pakula, along with cinematographer Godon Willis, adds so many stylized touches that it grabs you in from the very beginning and never let’s go. The evocative lighting is particularly impressive as is the editing and Michael Small’s soundtrack who wisely keeps the music subtle using only the light touches of a xylophone to help accentuate the suspense. What’s most amazing though is Bree’s apartment, which was completely constructed on a soundstage, complete with working toilet, but you’d never know it as it has an authentic cluttered, live-in look and realistic outside light and sound ambience coming in from the window making it one of the most believable set designs I’ve ever seen. Even if you’re not into the mystery just watching it for its production values along would be mesmerizing enough.
The acting adds yet another excellent dimension with Sutherland, wearing a boyish looking bowel haircut, disappearing in his role by giving a nuance performance that allows for Bree to get most of the attention. Fonda, who won the Oscar for her work here, is genuinely riveting and she adds a lot to the proceedings that wasn’t in the original script. One great example of this is when Bree listens to a tape recording of another prostitute getting violently attacked. It was written in that her character should respond with a look of fear, but instead Fonda impulsively broke out in tears, which helped to make her more likable when you can visibly see her empathy and emotions towards her peers. The wide mood swings that her character shows seemed quite authentic for that type of person. The romance angle works better than in most movies, as here it comes off more incrementally and not just all of sudden and it’s his unselfish actions that earns her love, but realistically due to their contrasting lifestyles never comes to a full, permanent fruition.
Charles Cioffi is also really good, but surprisingly never got enough credit. What impressed me was how ordinary he looked where he doesn’t stand out at all and could easily be a typical businessman seen anywhere. In most movies someone with a strange, or scary appearance gets cast as the bad guy, but in real life most killers blend in, like this one, and that’s why they’re able to get away with their crimes for as long as they do. I also liked how when he’s stalking Bree there’s a brief look of sadness in his eyes, like there’s a part of him that feels bad for what he’s about to do, which helps to make his character multi-dimensional. My only quibble is I wish we had seen a bit of his private life. Most likely a high corporate type like him would’ve been married and with a family and seeing him playing around with his kids, even briefly, would’ve made his dark side, when it finally comes about, all the more shocking, but still believable as I think there’s plenty of ‘happily’ married family men out there that could still harbor dark fantasies.
The supporting cast has some interesting moments too, which includes Roy Scheider in a rare turn as an antagonist, which he does well in, and Dorothy Tristan in a small, but pivotal part, as a drug tripping hooker. You can also spot Veronic Hamel, as an auditioning ad model, and Jean Stapleton, as a ditzy secretary, playing in minor roles before they became famous.
Spoiler Alert!
My only complaints with the story come mainly during Bree’s therapy sessions. The sessions themselves, especially the performance by Vivian Nathan as the psychiatrist, were well handled and one of the more realistic interpretations of a therapy session put on a film, but Bree’s ‘confessions’ didn’t totally jive. She says she feels ‘most in control’ when she’s doing tricks, but I’d presume it would be the other way. She packs no gun, so what’s to protect her if a guy gets rough? The idea that Cable would’ve been the only client that would have ever gotten violent with her seemed a stretch. Granted she’s a ‘high class’ call girl, but that still wouldn’t make her completely immune from having to deal with the occasional sickie. Rich guys can be dangerous too and sometimes even more so.
Hard to imagine that she couldn’t describe what the violent john who attacked her looked like especially since that was apparently a rare experience, so I’d think that would make him stand out even more so. His face would be so etched on her mind that she’d easily be able to tell Klute his appearance versus here where he just gets somehow forgotten in her mind along with all the rest. The scene where she meets up with another client and he implies that he has a unusual turn-on that he’d like to play out and whispers it in her ear, but then when the sex does get shown, under the covers, it comes off as quite vanilla and I failed to see where the ‘kink’ was.
I also felt it was a mistake to reveal who the killer was during the second act and having it remain a mystery to the very end would’ve been creepier. The way it gets resolved, where the detectives are able to connect the same typographical error in the obscene notes to other correspondence that Cable had sent to Gruneman, seemed too easy. I just don’t think Cable would’ve been dumb enough not to have spotted that mistake himself before sending out. A better way would’ve had Bree unable to remember the killer’s identity due to him knocking her unconscious during their violent meeting and then struggle through therapy to bring those repressed memories back, which she would’ve eventually been able to do at the end.
My Rating: 8 out of 10
Released: June 23, 1971
Runtime: 1 Hour 54 Minutes
Rated R
Director: Alan J. Pakula
Studio: Warner Brothers
Available: DVD, Blu-ray (The Criterion Collection), Tubi, YouTube
Scopophilia 