Directed by Clint Eastwood, Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, is an adaptation of the best-selling true story of death and sex in the genteel town of Savannah, Georgia in the early 80's.  John Cusack (who is one of my favorite actors) stars as John Kelso, a freelance writer from New York, who's sent to Savannah to cover a Christmas party and winds up covering a suspicious homicide.  The party is being thrown by a nouveau riche antiques dealer named Jim Williams (Kevin Spacey), a Southern-fried gentleman whose homosexuality is a well known secret.  Unfortunately, the capper to Williams' party is the death of his toy boy, Billy Hanson.  Williams claims he shot Billy in self-defense but, as Williams said himself, the truth is in the eye of the beholder.  Unfortunately, while old Jim Willliams' parties were legendary, when his "secret" becomes a bit too public, his socialite friends do not line up to support him,

    This movie simply does not work.  The characterizations are flat and cartoonish.  Spacey, while usually a compelling actor, is way over-the-top and Cusack's performance is not the least bit memorable.  Eastwood also makes the mistake of making Cusack's character a main  focus of the movie, and creates (it's not in the book) for the writer a dippy romance with a local Savannah girl played by Allison Eastwood, Clint's daughter.  In the novel, the writer was in the shadows and the colorful eccentrics that populated the story were well crafted and richly fascinating.  Eastwood also condenses the four actual trials that went on in this case down to one.  The only character that stands out is that of the Lady Chablis, a transsexual showgirl played by the Lady Chablis her/himself.

    Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil also suffers from a common ailment afflicting movies these days:  it's just too damn long.  At slightly over two and one half hours, Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil could have greatly benefited from the judicious use of a weedwacker.  So stay out of the garden:  it's not good, it's not evil, it's just plain bad.