Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil (1997)

Directed by Clint Eastwood. Starring John Cusack, Kevin Spacey, Jack Thompson, The Lady Chablis, Alison Eastwood, Irma P. Hall, Sonny Seiler, Bob Gunton, Paul Hipp, Geoffrey Lewis, Leon Rippy, Jude Law, Kim Hunter, Dorothy Loudon, Richard Herd, Patrika Darbo. [R]

Adaptation of John Berendt’s “non-fiction” bestseller follows a magazine reporter (Cusack) on assignment in Savannah to pen an article describing one of the much-ballyhooed Christmas parties thrown by self-made moneybags and bon vivant Jim Williams (Spacey), and he gets more than he bargained for when Spacey shoots and kills hot-tempered gigolo Law, allegedly in self-defense, after the party has ended. Leisurely mystery is soaked in provincial atmosphere and populated by a gaggle of eccentrics, some too outrageous to exist anywhere but a tall tale or fable (e.g., Lewis’ local crazed chemist, who carries around a bottle of poison as a constant threat to the town’s water supply and keeps horseflies tethered to his person with string). Most of the actors occupy their colorful characters well enough—some, like drag queen The Lady Chablis, even play themselves—and although all that Southern Gothic peculiarity may stretch plausibility, it at least provides something of interest during the more plodding spaces of the drawn-out story. What keeps it in the realm of the unexceptional most fervently, however, is Eastwood’s straightforward directorial approach, ever-observant but emotionally remote, preventing the viewer from ever getting involved in any of these kooky lives. Seiler, who plays the judge at Williams’ murder trial (a composite of multiple trials that were actually held), was the defendant’s real-life lawyer.

55/100