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For all the hype it got I was expecting a lot more!

Best movie ever!

The movie really just wants to entertain people.

That's how Broadway veteran Dorothy Loudon describes the powerful, well respected character played by Kevin Spacey, in jail awaiting trial for killing a drunken hustler. The victim allegedly threatened to kill Spacey, and now Town and Country reporter John Cusack (who simply came to Savannah to do a story on the local architecture) struggles to find out the truth. That old fashioned southern hospitality gets him into many high society houses, intermingling with a variety of eccentrics) and a transgendered drag performer (Lady Chablis) who knew the victim "extremely well".While strange in spots and fascinating in others, this doesn't completely strike the same cord for me that "The Crying Game", yet offers some great performances in unusual characterizations. Spacey, facing scandalous charges in his current life, parallels that ironically 20 years before, and no house of cards can survive this metaphor of a messy 52 Card Pickup. Cusack us good, not outstanding, and Dorothy Loudon plays a southern version of Auntie Mame that gives her some witty lines. Less memorable is Lady Chablis who over deadpans each of her lines and seems to be spending more on shock value than creating a transgender character minus stereotypes. I would have liked to have seen more of the chanting homeless woman played by Irma P. Hall. Other characters are in introduced but quickly disappear. The conservative Southern city seems far too open minded (or possibly enjoying the scandal) to be believable. An amusing moment has Lady Chablis crashing a ball for Southern black debutantes, with the nerdy young black man completely unaware that he's dancing with a transgender, a bit daring for its day. As directed by Clint Eastwood, this crosses some new lines, but often they are too blurred even when wrapped up in a colorful package.

Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil is a movie where Clint Eastwood shows again his maesto... With a scenario of John Lee Hancock, inspired by John Berendt's book, we enter the little town of Savannah to discover some intriguing events: John Kelso, journalist, thought he had to cover the most boring event of the year, the annual Christmas party of the "nouveau riche", Jim Williams. But he's quickly going to change he's mind, when Jim Williams is arrested in the middle of the night and charged with the murder of Billy Hanson, his young lover. With the help of the incredible drag queen Lady Chablis and some other eccentric characters, John Kelso will try to resolve the case. The first seconds of the movie are captivating, a deep woman voice singing in the background, curious scenes of a strange garden that will never be seen again... Every bit of the movie keeps you in the atmosphere of Savannah with her strange inhabitants and what seems like a fantastic, crazy world were good and evil are deeply linked together... An amazing movie!

Clint Eastwood brings a leisurely pace in Savannah, Georgia as he films the 'faction' novel, Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil.John Cusack is having a ball as John Kelso, a journalist sent by Town & Country magazine to cover a Savannah society do which is the talk of the town and attracts the wealthy and the eccentric.Kevin Spacey is also having a ball as Jim Williams, the self made businessman and art collector who throws the lavish party. However later that night Jim kills a former lover and Kelso stays on to investigate and uncover some dark secrets ranging from the gay scene, race and voodoo.Eastwood is too leisurely in its pace and although there are some good turns ranging from Geoffrey Lewis as the man with floating bees, Lady Chablis as a drag queen, Jack Thompson as an exasperated lawyer.Spacey does well in not camping it up too much but I think Eastwood was not entirely comfortable with the material. He is saved by his actors, the quirky characters and the production design. Its clear Eastwood finds Savannah intriguing but I do not think he was convinced himself with the strength of the story.

As an actor Clint Eastwood tended to specialise in action movies; although there were occasional exceptions such as "Play Misty for Me", his default settings were "tough cowboy" or "tough cop", occasionally "tough soldier" or "tough spy". As a director, however, he has had a wider range, alternating action films with other genres, as in the recent musical biopic "Jersey Boys". His "Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil" is partly a crime drama, but it is also much more than that. Jim Williams, a wealthy businessman from Savannah, Georgia is charged with murder following the death of his gay lover Billy Hanson. Williams admits shooting Hanson but claims that the killing was self-defence, an explanation which may well be true as Hanson, an alcoholic and drug abuser, had a notoriously unpredictable temper and had been heard making threats against Williams. When I saw the film recently I assumed that the story was a fictitious one and that John Berendt's book on which it is based must be a novel. In fact, the book is a work of non-fiction based upon real-life events which took place in the 1980s. Jim Williams was a real person, as is his lawyer Sonny Seiler. (Seiler appears in the movie playing not himself but the presiding judge at the trial). John Kelso, the reporter covering the case, is based on Berendt himself and Hanson on Williams's real- life lover Danny Hansford. Some changes were, however, made for dramatic purposes in the film. In reality Williams was actually tried four times when juries failed to agree, making him the only man in the history of Georgia to stand four times for the same alleged crime. (He was eventually acquitted, but died shortly afterwards). Here, however, the four trials are combined into one. The film is more than just a courtroom thriller, although the trial plays an important part. It is also a portrait of Southern society in the late twentieth century. The city of Savannah almost features as a character in its own right, genteel but faded in best Southern Gothic style, with its genteel but faded houses, dating back to the pre-Civil War era, inhabited by genteel but faded families, some of them also dating back to the pre-Civil War era. There are a number of colourful or eccentric characters, such as the black drag queen Lady Chablis (apparently another real-life individual, here playing herself), the voodoo priestess Minerva, a man who regularly takes an imaginary dog for a walk and another who goes everywhere accompanied by flies and makes regular threats to poison the city's water supply. Remarkably, this last is selected as a juror at Williams's trial without either side objecting to him, despite his obvious mental instability. It is Minerva who carries out, at Williams's behest, the bizarre voodoo ceremony which gave the book and film their title; she explains that the period before midnight is the time for good magic and the period after midnight that for evil magic. Films set in the South- "To Kill a Mockingbird" being a good example- often revolve around issues of race and social class, to which this one adds issues of sexual identity and sexual orientation. Savannah is portrayed as a deeply traditional place, dominated by its traditional leading families. Not all of these are white; Kelso is invited to a black debutantes' ball which seems to have been organised with the express purpose of demonstrating that the city has its black aristocracy as well as a white one. We learn that Williams is a nouveau-riche parvenu from a humble social background, but he is accepted by the elite because his style, elegance and gentlemanly ways mean that he has learned to behave like one of them. Although the elite traditionally disapproves of homosexuality in principle they turn a blind eye to his relationship with Hanson, partly because he keeps it discreet and partly because the bisexual Hanson- the "good time not yet had by all"- has had love affairs with several members of that elite, both men and women. Lady Chablis is also tolerated, largely because people find her amusing, but when Kelso tries to take her as his guest to the debutantes' ball she is decidedly not welcome. There are two excellent acting performances. The first comes from Kevin Spacey as Williams, whose pose as a quiet, elegant Southern gentleman may hide some murky secrets. The second comes from Jack Thompson as Sonny Seiler, a larger-than-life, ebullient character who, like his client, may be putting up a facade. Seiler's outward persona, which he uses to charm juries, is that of the simple Southern "good ol' boy", but there can be no doubt that beneath it he is hiding a razor-sharp legal brain. Hanson is played by Jude Law who in the same year (1997) also played the homosexual lover of an older man in "Wilde", where he was Lord Alfred Douglas to Stephen Fry's Oscar Wilde.When the came out film critical reviews were mixed and it was not a success at the box office. Yet to my mind it should have been. It is a good example of Eastwood's directorial ability- others include "Unforgiven" and the more recent "Gran Torino"-to combine the conventions of various types of action movie- the Western, the war film or the crime thriller- with some sharp social comment, thus producing something which not only works well as a drama but also says something of greater significance. 8/10