This is another old film that is not great enough to be considered a classic and not well known enough to be a cult hit either. Nevertheless its director Alan J. Pakula is an established name, being the producer of To Kill a Mockingbird and the director of All the President’s Men. This film itself is noteworthy for its unusually complex psychological treatment of its characters, especially in the domain of sexuality, though it does feel a little dated now.

Six months after an executive Tom Gruneman at a company disappears and the police fails to find him, the company hires private detective and family friend John Klute to pick up the trail. The only clue is that Gruneman seems to have written letters of an obscene nature to a call girl in New York named Bree Daniels. When Klute follows up with her, he learns that Daniels was busted for prostitution when her part in this was revealed and doesn’t remember Gruneman at all as she has so many clients. She does confess that a john beat her up a couple of years ago and feels that she is being stalked but attributes it to her own paranoia. Klute tries to find out the identity by going to her former pimp and this leads him to another prostitute under his stable who is now dead. Even as Klute follows this trail, he inevitably develops a romance with Daniels as she slowly lets down her guard.

This seems like a straightforward thriller and even the identity of the villain isn’t much of a mystery. What makes it stand out is the extraordinary seriousness that Jane Fonda puts into her performance as Bree Daniels. She exudes a powerful sexuality here not by using her body but by unapologetically selling a male fantasy of being anyone the clients needs her to be. Even while she confidently asserts her power over men as she has seen and done everything such that there is nothing a man can ask for that will shock her, she is also revealed to be emotionally vulnerable when she actually develops feelings for someone. I’m sure that this isn’t terribly sophisticated by modern standards but it is far more developed than the usual female victim in most thrillers. Donald Sutherland is excellent as well as the stoic detective who sees far more than he lets on but really this film is so much Fonda’s show it’s ridiculous why it’s named Klute.

This probably still isn’t outstanding enough to warrant going out of your way for as there are better thriller worth watching. In particular Klute’s investigative techniques, like matching typing patterns on a typewriter, feel incredibly anachronistic and simple now. But it is a pretty solid film and ahead of its time in its treatment of sexuality.