Midnight In The Garden Of Good And Evil [1998] [DVD]

Interesting as the main characters are, I believe it is in researching for his book that Kelso meets the two true stars of the show: Minerva, the Vodou priestess who cautions the inquisitive writer that "there ain't no answers," and The Lady Chablis, the drag queen with a Diana Ross flair who offers to unwrap her candy for the reluctant yankee. These ladies, along with the other supporting characters, such as the eccentric who glues live bees to strings that are tied to his lapel (locals treat him with a fearful reverence, afraid he may poison the city's water supply if upset), the man employed to walk a dog that died decades ago, and the career squatter/jazz musician, are the true heart of this story. They are all dynamic and charismatic enough to make me forget that, yes, sometimes the editing is a little choppy. And Savannah comes across as an exquisitely beautiful city (this movie must've done wonders for tourism).

I really love Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil!

Andrew Parodi

Most importantly, the person at the center of the story: antiques dealer, art lover, restorer of historic mansions and sun of Savannah's genteel society, Jim Williams, is exactly the kind of man you imagine after having read the book - portrayed by Kevin Spacey with all the charm, grace and slightly condescending noblesse you would expect from a textbook Southern gentleman, with that "coastal accent ... soft and slurring, liquid of vowels, kind to consonants" as John Behrendt writes, quoting "Gone With the Wind;" making you forget that neither Mr. Williams actually came from "old money," nor Kevin Spacey grew up south of the Mason-Dixon line. And Savannah, of course, is Savannah ... city of grand old mansions surrounding its 21 squares, cotillon balls (including a black one), a Married Women's (Card) Club, lush vegetation, shady trees, Spanish moss and sultry heat radiating from the pages of John Behrendt's book as much as it does from the movie screen in director Clint Eastwood's interpretation. The movie was shot on location, including and in particular in and around Williams's Mercer House, on Monterey Square and in Bonaventure and Beaufort Cemeteries; giving it that feeling of authenticity which is virtually impossible to replicate in a studio. In addition, almost all of the Savannah residents vital to the story readily participated in screen tests; with the glamorous Lady Chablis (in all her eccentricity more lady than many a born one, Southern or otherwise) emerging in a starring role and Williams's attorney Sonny Seiler portraying the trial judge. Even bulldog Uga, the famed mascot of the University of Georgia's football team, traditionally provided by the Seiler family and as important a member of Savannah society as all its human residents and as Patrick, the long-deceased dog still symbolically being walked by its former caregiver, was not left out ... with the minor imperfection that because Uga IV, the star of the book and the real events it describes had already followed his ancestors Uga I - III to dog heaven when the movie was shot, he had to be portrayed by his son, Uga V. And more authenticity is added by the use of several songs written by Johnny Mercer, Savannah's famous son and great-grandson of the general who built the mansion restored and inhabited by Jim Williams.

Clint Eastwood's direction evokes an only marginally modernized version of the "old South" most of which could have come straight out of a book by Faulkner or Tennessee Williams; with an eye for the atmosphere and intricacies of the place and its people that comes as a surprise only to those who merely know the one-term mayor of Carmel, CA as Dirty Harry or the Man With No Name, not as the director of "The Bridges of Madison County," like this movie a book adaptation (although set in quite a different environment). And in this approach, he proves as faithful to John Behrendt's book as in the movie's depiction of Jim Williams and his fellow Savannahians: What on the surface is the chronicle of the trial of a prominent and rather colorful member of society for the death of a wayward, hot-tempered street hustler who happened to be his sometime lover (and that of most of Savannah's society, both male and female), is truly a complex, beautifully shot portrayal of the city itself and its people; like in the book, the events as such are merely a vehicle to put into pictures what Eastwood was interested in most. Yet, the movie should first and foremost be taken at face value; it is more than just another book adaptation and in its dignified beauty, easily stands on its own two feet.