Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil (1997)

Plan: John Kelso (John Cusack) is hired by Town and Country to cover the Christmas party of Savannah socialite Jim Williams (Kevin Spacey) and sticks around for Williams' trial when he is accused of murder in the first a few hours later. Or, as Kelso says, "This place is like Gone with the Wind on mescaline (?)!"

This is the film that caused me to exclaim "Clint Eastwood should direct everything!". Eastwood should, in fact, not direct everything. That would be bad. But he should direct this movie because he did a brilliant job. Honestly, he has a great sense of humour, balance, and beauty. His ability to pace himself, however, is called into question by the 155 minutes the DVD bills him with. Maybe a little too long. I like long movies, though, but I know they are certainly not for everyone.

He definitely keeps up with John Lee Hancock's slick script based on John Berendt's international best seller. Don't ask me how the movie fares as an adaptation of the book, though, as I have never read the book. As a movie, it's grand (literally and figuratively).

I should take this time to discuss how Spacey and Cusack (two of my fav leading men) rise to the occasion in this murder mystery, but they aren't who really caught my eye. That prize belongs to the Lady Chablis, who plays herself. She is stunning and scathing. Snaps for the Lady.

One itty bitty nit picky point: I swear, in this movie, Savannah, Georgia is doing its best impresonation of New Orleans. Every time I see it, I forget it's not in New Orleans. Why is that?