Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil Review
by Seth Bookey (sethbook AT panix DOT com)December 15th, 1997
Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil (1997)
Seen on 27 November 1997 with Linda, Sandy and Lynne, and Miriam and Justin, for $8.50 at Douglaston Movieworld.
[Longer review than usual.]
What's that old adage again? Ah yes! "The movie is never as good as the book." Truer words were never recalled as fiercely as they are for *Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil*. Director Clint Eastwood was lucky enough to get ahold of a novel that was on bestsellers lists for years. It is unfortunate that the deep impression left upon me by the book leaves me disappointed with this movie, which is longer than two and a half hours.
John Berendt's novel is written much like a Balzac novel--rich in history, very much roman a clef, and it is not until all the players and their stories are firmly in place that the "main action" or crisis for the characters begins.
In this case, it is the shooting of young Billy Hanson (Jude Law) by nouveau riche Savannah aristocrat Jim Williams (Kevin Spacey). On the eve of this event arrives *Town and Country* writer John Kelso (John Cusack), to cover Jim's annual Christmas party, one of the most highly sought-out invitations in Savannah society.
John becomes enmeshed in a variety of social intrigues and the quirky Southern characters that propel them. There's Luther Driggers (Geoffrey Lewis), who ties horseflies to his clothes and threatens to poison the water supply; carriage-driving Joe Odom (Paul Hipp), who siphons electricity to light his illegal tours and parties; Minerva (Irma P. Hall), the local voodoo lady; and who will ever forget The Lady Chablis (played by herself)--the transvestite transsexual?
There are also other ancillary quirkies to keep us entertained: the party guest who blithely waves a pint-sized pistol around; the man who "walks" an empty leash around the town square; the bulldog mascot that is treated like royalty.
All of this conspires to give an essence of living in Savannah; Berendt's book is based on true characters. However, what made the book interesting is absent in many ways in the movie. A book allows the luxury of depth and imagination heightens that depth. Movies limit this.
The film spends a lot of time in the courtroom when Jim Williams is arrested for killing hustler Billy Hanson. It is known that he did kill him, but the depth of *why* is not really explored from anyone but Jim William's point of view. Instead of spending time court telling the story, flashbacks would have been more elaborative--a movie technique ignored for the most part. A Rashomon style storytelling would have added to the extent of Billy's despicable nature.
Also rather uninteresting was the filming. Considering how colorful the characters and the town are, why is there a dull, flat look throughout the movie? At one point, the courtroom scenes almost look like they relied on natural lighting.
The Lady Chablis is the standout performance here. Flambuoyant and buoyant, without her the movie would simply limp its way home. Also interesting was Jack Thompson (I) as defense attorney Sonny Seiler, the epitome of Southern gentility and chicanery. Alison Eastwood (Clint's daughter) plays Mandy Nichols, who seems thrown in to provide a love interest for John Cusack. She plays one useful purpose in the story, but is otherwise wasted. She will probably make a good leading lady in her own right one day, however.
The saddest part of this adaptation is that it is the the possibly the first book about the South to garner this much attention since *Gone with the Wind*, and it gets a typical Hollywood treatment that proves the "old adage" once again.
----------------------------------------------------------------- Copyright (c) 1997 Seth J. Bookey, New York, NY 10021
More movie reviews by Seth Bookey, with graphics, can be found at http://www.geocities.com/Athens/2679/kino.html
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