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Kevin Spacey, John Cusack, Jack Thompson, Lady Chablis, Alison Eastwood ... see more see more... , Irma P. Hall , Paul Hipp , Jude Law , Dorothy Loudon , Anne Haney , Kim Hunter , Geoffrey Lewis , Rhoda Griffis , Shannon Eubanks , Leon Rippy

Clint Eastwood directed this adaptation of John Berendt's non-fiction best-seller about a Savannah, Georgia, murder case. When this film was released, Berendt's book had been on best-seller lists for ... read more read more...four years. As the film begins, New York journalist John Kelso (John Cusack), alter ego of author Berendt, arrives in Savannah to do a brief Town and Country article on the annual Christmas party given by sophisticated, urbane antique dealer Jim Williams (Kevin Spacey), who restored many mansions in Savannah, including the famed Mercer House where he lives. After the party, Williams kills his rude, violent lover Billy Hanson (Jude Law), explaining it as a necessary act of self-defense. Kelso decides to stay in Savannah to cover the trial, encountering a variety of colorful locals, eccentric and otherwise, including black transvestite nightclub performer Lady Chablis (appearing as herself), financially challenged bon vivant Joe Odom (Paul Hipp), vocalist Mandy Nichols (Alison Eastwood), voodoo priestess Minerva (Irma P. Hall), and Williams's deceptively powerful defense attorney Sonny Seiler (Australian actor Jack Thompson with a very convincing Southern accent). Kelso develops a romantic interest in Mandy while tracking the events that led up to the killing. ~ Bhob Stewart, Rovi

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64% liked it

35,887 ratings

Critics

47% liked it

32 critics

R, 2 hr. 35 min.

Directed by: Clint Eastwood

Release Date: November 21, 1997

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DVD Release Date: June 30, 1998

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Stats: 1,356 reviews

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Flixster Reviews (1,356)

  • binky013
    November 22, 2011
    binky013
    11/21/11 update:

    Just saw this again after about two or three years. Clint Eastwood is a multi-tasking god.

    I have a friend who has a couple of high-school aged daughters. It's not that the daughters are slackers; the oldest one is the valedictorian of her class. What

    ... read morebothers my friend is that the kids are always boasting about how good they are at multi-tasking -- it's reportedly one of the greatest talents of their generation. My friend constantly rolls her eyeballs when these boasts are set forward, because she would like for them to understand that multi-tasking means more than doing lots of things at once. She wants them to know that it means doing lots of things at once well -- completely. Not doing a bunch of things in a half-baked manner. This generation does do lots of things simultaneously, but they tend to do them not in the way of renaissance "men," but in the way of, say, renai "men." Half-way. Along the lines of a jack-of-all-trades and master of none.

    This is definitely not Clint Eastwood's problem. You can throw him two-dozen balls, and he'll keep them all in the air. Piece of cake. Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil is an example of Eastwood at the height of his multiple powers.

    And hey, here are words to live by from Lady Chablis:

    Like my mama always used to say, "Two peas in a bucket, mother-f--k-it." What a find she was : )

    * * * * *

    Original comments, way back when:

    It begins with a soundtrack: All Johnny Mercer, all the time. We know Eastwood has an ear for music. BIRD is a good example of his tastes. This soundtrack is phenomenal. k.d. lang's "Skylark" haunts me; I hear it in my head from out of nowhere when I least expect it.

    To say the reaction to this movie was "mixed" is generous. If it was truly mixed, I think there would have been a few more critics making a few more positive comments. Clintwood was called self-indulgent for meandering around with the direction of this movie. You can call it meandering; I'll call it . . . jazz. Cusack delivers a tour de force performance. Spacey is equally good. That death scene with Jude Law, facing each other on the floor, and that smile Law gives Spacey--it gives me goosebumps just typing about it. The acting of Eastwood's daughter. Okay, so this isn't big on FX, lacks thrilling stunts and car chases, and maybe moves very slowly, very methodically, very thoughtfully, at times. But this true story is compellingly condensed, not butchered--just think, if Eastwood had stuck even more closely to this excellent book, the movie could have gone on for three or four more hours. Chop-jobs of books is what I fear we may see trending with the HARRY POTTER series--although that's way too harsh of me to say. All these wonderfully quirky Savannah characters so beautifully played--or discovered: The Lady Chablis! That fine detail, so artistically appropriate, of the one painting covered up by the second painting. Layer upon layer . . . Yes, flixsters, I think that's it: I'm calling this a masterful Clint Eastwood jazz performance.
  • blkbomb
    October 2, 2011
    blkbomb
    Jim Williams: Sport, truth, like art, is in the eye of the beholder. You believe what you choose and I'll believe what I know. 

    "Welcome to Savannah, Georgia. A City Of Hot Nights And Cold Blooded Murder."

    Midnight in The Garden of Good and Evil is probably in the bottom half o... read moref Eastwood's directorial efforts. But i still really like it. I'm probably overrating it, because it does have a lot of problems, but I just really liked it for it's unconventionality. It's a strange, almost surreal movie; full of weird relationships that make no sense, voodoo, murder and a bunch of southern accents. It's slow moving and I loved it for that. It pretty much hypnotized me. Nothing about it is all that exciting, but it's a joy too watch.

    Even with how much I like this film; I won't say it's a great film. It has a lot of problems. The story runs together and it kind of makes it feel like a mess; but a mesmerizing mess at that. If you don't like slow moving, not a lot of action, long movies, stay away because this is not for you. Also, at times the strangeness of some of the characters makes the movie come off as overly silly, which is weird to see from a Clint Eastwood directed film. 

    I can overlook all of its problems though because Eastwood still manages to make it captivating. The story is extremely interesting and seeing this movie makes me really want to read the book. The best part of this movie is the two leads, John Cusack and Kevin Spacey. I am a huge fan of both and it was a lot of fun watching them onscreen together. Also, Jude Law has a very minor supporting role, which he still amazing in. If you're thinking of watching this movie only because of the presence of Law, though, I wouldn't bother. He might have about 5 minutes of screen time in the whole film. 

    This is one of those movies that is very polarizing. It's going to split people on whether they can enjoy it or not. It reminds me a lot of Eastwood's Hereafter in that regards. Both are extremely slow and have no real feeling of a beginning, middle or end. But I still enjoyed them both. I know a lot of people who hated them both too. Eastwood has obviously done much better things than this and that's part of the reason I'm not rating it even higher. With all that talent that is involved in this film; it should have been even better. Even though I did like it; the expectations of how good it should be did make it slightly disappointing.
  • matertenebraum
    November 29, 2010
    matertenebraum
    A fine achievement, for three reasons. First, the extraordinary atmosphere which Eastwood succeeds in conjuring, especially at the opening and in the graveyard scenes - eerie threat in the midst of sunlit affluence. Second, Spacey's performance, top class as always, subtle and st... read moreylish - has he ever disappointed (all right, Working Girl)? Third, the dazzling presence of Lady Chablis, playing him/herself. Next to these, the flaws - length, awkward narrative structure, Cusack's sleepwalking performance, pointless scenes which fizzle out - seem relatively unimportant.
  • ythelastman89
    January 7, 2010
    ythelastman89
    It was an interesting movie with a good cast, but it wasn't a particularly amazing bit of film-making. It's easily Clint Eastwood's most unimaginative and bland directing jobs. If it were not for the story, it would have been a worthless movie.
  • guaybanex
    January 7, 2010
    guaybanex
    Disappointingly terrible. Cusack continues to prove he's a one-note actor who's benefited from good material. "Midnight" has no charm, is bafflingly paced and never bothers to try to engage the viewer.
  • bottcorecords1
    February 27, 2009
    bottcorecords1
    John Kelso (John Cusack) comes from New York to write an article on the party for Town and Country magazine, but gets sucked into hanging around when Jim is put on trial for murder. Everythings odd and everyone's eccentric in Savannah: a man walks an invisible dog, an old voodoo... read more woman skulks around, talking to squirrels, and then there's the drag queen. One night, John is awakened by a beautiful blonde woman who drags him off to an eccentric party. The next night he attends Jim's party and there's more eccentrics, including Jim's handyman (Jude Law) whom Jim winds up killing later in the evening, in what appears to be self-defense. John calls his publicist, telling him "this place is like 'Gone With The Wind' on mescaline" and "New York is boring!". Which brings us to Lady Chablis, a real life transvestite performer cast in this movie to play a transvestite performer. Of course she's great and dominates the film when she's onscreen, but in a movie that's nearly 3 hours, her scenes feel absolutely unnecessary and contribute nothing other than a plot contrivance later in the film. Likewise the blonde and her moustached companion. I kept expecting there to be some twist where it was revealed they were the actual murderers or conspirators, but it seems their appearance in this film was equally pointless. By the end of the movie, the trial starts to get just plain silly, and the voodoo ending came off like an old episode of "tales from the crypt". And Jude Law fails to pull off a convincing southern accent, just so you know. Overall, a sloppy movie that ends up kind of nonsensical.
  • Beefy
    May 13, 2007
    Beefy
    Inexcusably boring for such a talented bunch of people.
  • jjnxn
    April 4, 2007
    jjnxn
    disappointing
  • superclerk25
    February 26, 2007
    superclerk25
    This flick had a mood about it that I liked. Plus John Cusack is good in everything he pops up in.
  • purplemegan
    February 15, 2007
    purplemegan
    A good movie, but the book was so much better. I love Savannah, GA!

View All Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil Reviews

Critic Reviews

Mike Clark
January 1, 2000
Mike Clark, USA Today

An oppressively long cinematic oddball.

Phil Hall
August 1, 2011
Phil Hall, Film Snobbery

Seems like alchemy in reverse - a golden property is turned into lead. Full Review

Rob Gonsalves
July 18, 2008
Rob Gonsalves, eFilmCritic.com

Spacey, the best reason to see Midnight, gives his usual suave, effortless performance. Full Review

Jeffrey M. Anderson
October 6, 2003
Jeffrey M. Anderson, San Francisco Examiner

Seriously underrated; Eastwood gets the lazy Savannah pacing exactly right.

Edward Johnson-Ott
March 12, 2003
Edward Johnson-Ott, NUVO Newsweekly

Overlong and clumsy, but compelling.

James Sanford
January 1, 2000
James Sanford, Kalamazoo Gazette

crowned by a smashing performance by the always-mesmerizing Kevin Spacey... Full Review

David N. Butterworth
January 1, 2000
David N. Butterworth, rec.arts.movies.reviews

Sometimes Clint Eastwood does this. Forgets how to make a movie. Full Review

Widgett Walls
January 1, 2000
Widgett Walls, Needcoffee.com

I can't wait to read the book and see what all the fuss is about. Full Review

Bob Satuloff
January 1, 2000
Bob Satuloff, Film Journal International

The film's effect is that of a fictional travelogue that offers amusement, but lacks substance. Full Review

Dennis Schwartz
January 1, 2000
Dennis Schwartz, Ozus' World Movie Reviews

Spacey's charm and wit carry this film about as far as it can go. Full Review

Critic ratings and reviews powered by RottenTomatoes.com

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Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil Trivia

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  • Kevin Spacey, John Cusack, Jude Law & a murder in Savannah?  Answer »
  • In which movie did John Cusack play the role of John Kelso?   Answer »
  • In what movie did the line "From my top to your bottom. From my bottom to your top. From my middle to your middle, if you be good John I just might give you a little" come from?  Answer »
  • Where is "Midnight In The Garden of Good And Evil" set?  Answer »
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