Midnight in Garden of Good & Evil

Midnight in Garden of Good & Evil Review

I have had this film on my desk for review for a long,long time and now with the recent re-release(June/10)by Warners of Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil,along with many other Clint Eastwood titles,I thought it would be a good time to review it.As you probably know the movie is the /97 adaption of John Berendt's /94 bestseller of the same name,which appeared on the New York Time's bestseller list for over 200 hundred days.Like most adaptions from book to film this one is not a true recreation by any stretch,however director Eastwood manages to create a wonderful,one might say,southern gothic-like atmoshpere which slowly but surely draws the viewer in,as character after character colourfully fills in his visual canvas.
The story involves a wanna be author John Kelso(John Cusak)who goes to Savannah,Georgia on commission from a magazine similar in nature to Better Homes and Gardens.His purpose is to do a 500 word article on the home and annual famous soiree given by local Jim Williams(Kevin Spacey).Mr.Williams is a very influential,rich but affable man with apparently a very large base of friends.Kelso attends said party and leaves but later that night he is awakened by the sounds of police car sirens.It seems Mr.Williams has shot one Billy Hanson(Jude Law),a "handyman" who he employs.Coincidentally Kelso had been witness to a verbal altercation Williams had had with Hanson during the party.
Williams is arrested and tells a story of self defense.The subsequent trial reveals many sordid details not only of Hanson but of Williams himself.It seems Hanson's relationship with Williams,and with others,was more than platonic.As things drag on the defence seems to be getting pushed into a corner until Kelso uncovers some incriminating evidence at the hospital,which ultimately the defence will use to exonerate him.However before William's lawyer shows up to tell his client the good news,Williams and Kelso have a heart to heart in which Williams says he killed Hanson,but not quite in the self defence manner he previously was adhering to.Kelso is taken aback but when the lawyer shows up Williams reverts back to his old story.The "not guilty" verdict is a slam dunk.
Now free Kelso and Williams meet one last time at his home.As he leaves Kelso asks him what the real story was.Williams replies"Truth,like art,is in the eye of the beholder".After he leaves Williams has a heart attack and falls to the floor dead.After the funeral Kelso decides to remain in Savannah to write a book on the incident.
This film is chock full of colourful characters that one might find in Huckleberry Fin or To Kill a Mockingbird.Along with Williams southern affability we have Lady Chablis(Chablis Deaveau),a drag queen in real life,who provides most of the films most amusing moments,usually in tandem with John Cusack.Australian actor(!)Jack Thompson is Williams rotund,easy going,good old boy stereo-typical southern lawyer-friend.Clint's daughter Allsion plays a local called Mandy,who comes in and out of the proceedings but projects a wonderful laid back but sex-tinged aura.Clint draws on one of his more well known and used stable of actors from many of his other films in Geoffrey Lewis.He plays a very eccentric local who walks around with horse flies attached to strings and a bottle of poison water which everyone thinks he might one day spoil the local water supply with.Irma Hall plays with wonderful relish,a local voodoo woman called Minerva that Williams uses and also is seen constantly throughout keeping it all good with the spirit world.It is these and others that inhabit this portrayal of old Savannah,its culture(its' famous musical son Johnny Mercer is given on screen mention along with his music),its people and its flavour that makes this such an appealing drama/film.And Clint does a masterful job immersing us in that atmosphere.
Techincally speaking,though there is no indication it has been remastered,Waners seems to have at least struck a new print as the picture is quite clean and crisp.And although the blurb for this film on Amazon sites lists this movie in widescreen AND full screen,it is ONLY in widescreen.It has many special features including an interactive tour of Savannah,featurettes on the cast and the characters in the book and film along with the trailer.
All in all a very good and recommended tale of the old card game of deception and truth in the old south,specifically Savannah,Georgia.You can almost smell those magnolia blossoms,taste that cool ice tea and feel the humidity all around.

Midnight in Garden of Good & Evil Overview

The most important party of the Savannah Christmas season ends with a bang! when affable host Jim Williams (Kevin Spacey) shoots a man to death. The party is over, the investigation begins. Director Clint Eastwood weaves murder, mystery and voodoo into a sumptuous adaptation of the John Berendt bestseller based on true events. Spacey and John Cusack as a journalist drawn to Savannah’s decadence and eccentrics lead a nimble cast that includes Jack Thompson, Alison Eastwood and The Lady Chablis. For “one of the best American films of the year” (Boston Herald), rendezvous at Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil.

Midnight in Garden of Good & Evil Specifications

Readers of John Berendt's bestselling novel were bound to be at least somewhat disappointed by this big-screen adaptation, but despite mixed reaction from critics and audiences, there's still plenty to admire about director Clint Eastwood's take on the material. Readers will surely miss the rich atmosphere and societal detail that Berendt brought to his "Savannah story," and the movie can only scratch the surface of Georgian history, tradition, and wealthy decadence underlying Berendt's fact-based murder mystery. Still, Eastwood maintains an assured focus on the wonderful eccentrics of Savannah, most notably a gay Savannah antiques dealer (superbly played by Kevin Spacey), who may or may not have killed his friend and alleged lover (Jude Law). John Cusack plays the Town & Country journalist who arrives in Savannah to find much more than he bargained for--including the city's legendary drag queen Lady Chablis (playing "herself")--and John Lee Hancock's smoothly adapted screenplay succeeds in bringing Berendt's characters vividly to life with plenty of flavorful dialogue. --Jeff Shannon

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*** Product Information and Prices Stored: Oct 20, 2010 11:12:04