The Antagonist

This is the Alan J Pakula test run. Like true fits of paranoia there are moments of divine clarity, but the majority of the story is murky and uninteresting. Instead, as if almost intuitively, Jane Fonda takes over when the film begins to run out of steam, turning in a strikingly humanist performance that reminds me of Faye Dunaway’s tragic acting masterclass Barfly (1987). I find Klute’s value in tracing the threads which eventually lead to Pakula’s alltimers like The Parallax View (1974) and All the Presidents Men (1976). Klute’s legacy remains a favorable one, if largely because of Fonda.