Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil Review
by Scott Renshaw (renshaw AT inconnect DOT com)November 20th, 1997
MIDNIGHT IN THE GARDEN OF GOOD AND EVIL
(Warner Bros.)
Starring: Kevin Spacey, John Cusack, Jack Thompson, Alison Eastwood, The Lady Chablis, Irma P. Hall.
Screenplay: John Lee Hancock, based on the book by John Berendt. Producers: Clint Eastwood and Arnold Stiefel.
Director: Clint Eastwood.
MPAA Rating: R (profanity, adult themes, violence)
Running Time: 151 minutes.
Reviewed by Scott Renshaw.
Here's a brain teaser for all you aspiring screenwriters out there: how do you adapt MIDNIGHT IN THE GARDEN OF GOOD AND EVIL, a 350-page true-crime drama in which the crime doesn't occur until around page 170? Before you answer, I should warn you that it's a bit of a trick question. John Berendt's 1994 non-fiction novel, based on the author's experiences while living in Savannah, Georgia in the 1980s, defies simple categorization. Part travelogue, part character study, part cultural anthropology lesson and part courtroom thriller, it combined disparate elements into the hypnotic tale of a unique place. So that screenwriting assignment might be better phrased as: how do you adapt MIDNIGHT IN THE GARDEN OF GOOD AND EVIL, a 350-page true-crime drama which isn't really a true-crime drama?
John Lee Hancock had more or less the right idea when he chose to let his screenplay wander and sprawl. The backbone of the narrative involves Berendt's fictional stand-in, a New York writer named John Kelso (John Cusack) who comes to Savannah on assignment for Town & Country Magazine to cover the city's most lavish Christmas party. The host of that party is Jim Williams (Kevin Spacey), a wealthy antiques dealer who instantly charms Kelso with his wit, hospitality and fondness for Kelso's writing. Then Kelso finds his assignment taking an unexpected grim twist when Williams is charged with first-degree murder in the death of his assistant -- and lover -- Billy Hanson (Jude Law).
That covers the "plot" in a video-guide-summary sense, but it doesn't begin to do justice to what MIDNIGHT is about. Hancock's script wisely retains Berendt's willingness to let a collection of colorful characters carry the story in tangential directions, painting a messy but vivid portrait of Savannah as (in Kelso's words) "GONE WITH THE WIND on mescaline." Among Kelso's odd encounters are run-ins with a voodoo priestess named Minerva (Irma P. Hall) and a flirtatious relationship with pre-operative transsexual The Lady Chablis (played by the real Lady herself). Director Clint Eastwood chooses an ideal, languid pace for MIDNIGHT which turns it into the perfect Southern story: in no particular hurry to get anywhere, yet still intriguing in its richness of detail.
In Berendt's novel, that fragmented approach turns the city of Savannah itself into the story's principal character. The Williams trial functions primarily as a lightning rod for the attitudes and perceptions of the city's inhabitants, in whom eccentricity is ultimately a matter of degree. There are, however, some vacuums Hollywood abhors, and MIDNIGHT IN THE GARDEN OF GOOD AND EVIL tries to fill two of them with some pretty ineffective stuff. Instead of a story about a strange and mysterious place, it is transformed into the story of a confidence-impaired writer on a quest for True Love and Acceptance; instead of reveling in atmospheric unpredictability, the script introduces a romantic interest (Alison Eastwood) so token you could use her to ride the subway. Hancock works wonders with the novel's decade-long time frame, condensing events with impressive economy. He also strains to shove the story's square pegs into the gaping round hole of studio picture paradigms.
Hancock and Eastwood may very well have made the best adaptation of MIDNIGHT possible within a studio system. The acting is first-rate from top to bottom (including a sly and charismatic debut by The Lady Chablis as him/herself), Eastwood's technical team delivers typical excellence, and many of the book's best situations are re-created with sharp humor. There's just something vaguely unsatisfying about MIDNIGHT, and not just in comparison to its source material. This story cries out for a less conventional treatment, though it's still fairly unconventional by most standards. The makers of MIDNIGHT had their heart in the right place, but the result teases with the promise of an off-beat exploration it delivers only sporadically. Perhaps the answer to that screenwriting assignment is even trickier than the question. How do you adapt MIDNIGHT IN THE GARDEN OF GOOD AND EVIL? You don't.
On the Renshaw scale of 0 to 10 midnight not-so-specials: 6.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------- Visit Scott Renshaw's MoviePage
http://www.inconnect.com/~renshaw/
***
Subscribe to receive new reviews directly by email! See the MoviePage for details, or reply to this message with subject line "Subscribe".
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
More on 'Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil'...
Originally posted in the rec.arts.movies.reviews newsgroup. Copyright belongs to original author unless otherwise stated. We take no responsibilities nor do we endorse the contents of this review.
