MIDNIGHT IN THE GARDEN OF GOOD AND EVIL
A film review by David N. Butterworth
Copyright 1997 David N. Butterworth
Rating: *1/2 (Maltin scale)
Somewhere between this year's "Absolute Power" and his latest film, "Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil," somewhere between good and evil itself, director Clint Eastwood forgot how to make a movie.
That in and of itself is hard to believe; Eastwood has had a successful career spanning four decades. What makes it all the more confounding is what Eastwood had to work with: "Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil" is based on John Berendt's Pulitzer Prize-nominated novel, a work brimming with intrigue, murder, and colorful Southern characters. The setting is Savannah, Georgia--hard to make that town look dull--and Eastwood has both Kevin Spacey and John Cusack on board, two actors with more charm than the entire cast of "Fletch Lives."
The plot is a simple one: John Kelso (Cusack) is a New York City journalist who is hired to cover a swank Christmas party of Savannah's own Jim Williams (Spacey), a nouveau riche ("it's the riche that counts") antiques dealer. Kelso's assignment is to produce a 500 word "literary postcard" for "Town and Country" magazine but when Williams is suddenly and surprisingly accused of murdering his sometime lover Billy Hanson (Jude Law), Kelso's postcard evolves into an investigation that draws in the town's melting pot of eccentrics.
It's been a long time since someone snoring in a movie theater drowned out the actors' dialogue but the courtroom scenes are so stultifyingly somnambulistic you can soon understand why. The proceedings are snail-pacingly slow, the star witnesses all seem half asleep, and by verdict time you've forgotten what Alison Eastwood--who provides Cusack with some superfluous love interest--is even *doing* in this picture. Ah yes... She's the director's daughter.
In addition, the film surprises with some very shoddy editing (characters "jump" across the frame) and--something you don't see very often--an actor flubbing his lines. Spacey, as usual, is dapper and beguiling as the accused but the likable Cusack is nothing but jaw-dropping reaction shots.
Savannah, of course, looks lovely, a historical appreciation society's dream dripping with Spanish moss and Southern hospitality. It's a town that has its fair share of weirdos--imaginary dog walkers, voodoo priestesses, and overstuffed, heavily armed drunks. ""Gone With the Wind" on mescaline," as Kelso describes it.
Perhaps the most colorful character of them all is The Lady Chablis, a transvestite diva played by herself, whose increasingly annoying presence results in more open mouths from Cusack's character. For a New York writer, Kelso seems a teensy bit out of touch when he finally realizes that she is, in fact, a he. Chablis' antics at a debutante cotillion ball seemed designed solely as a showcase for her questionable talents; her nightclub act, if you can call it that, is a bust (no pun intended).
The film often seems too focused on The Lady Chablis and not enough on the motivations and ambiguities of its central characters. For two and a half "leisurely" hours, "Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil" just sits there on the screen like an overbaked soufflé that has failed to rise.
-- David N. Butterworth dnb@mail.med.upenn.edu
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