A Masterpiece!

It’s an especially fun movie from a director and cast who are clearly having a good time allowing themselves to let loose.

A lot of perfectly good film show their cards early, establish a unique premise and let the audience explore a topic at a leisurely pace, without much in terms of surprise. this film is not one of those films.

It’s fine. It's literally the definition of a fine movie. You’ve seen it before, you know every beat and outcome before the characters even do. Only question is how much escapism you’re looking for.

That's how Broadway veteran Dorothy Loudon describes the powerful, well respected character played by Kevin Spacey, in jail awaiting trial for killing a drunken hustler. The victim allegedly threatened to kill Spacey, and now Town and Country reporter John Cusack (who simply came to Savannah to do a story on the local architecture) struggles to find out the truth. That old fashioned southern hospitality gets him into many high society houses, intermingling with a variety of eccentrics) and a transgendered drag performer (Lady Chablis) who knew the victim "extremely well".While strange in spots and fascinating in others, this doesn't completely strike the same cord for me that "The Crying Game", yet offers some great performances in unusual characterizations. Spacey, facing scandalous charges in his current life, parallels that ironically 20 years before, and no house of cards can survive this metaphor of a messy 52 Card Pickup. Cusack us good, not outstanding, and Dorothy Loudon plays a southern version of Auntie Mame that gives her some witty lines. Less memorable is Lady Chablis who over deadpans each of her lines and seems to be spending more on shock value than creating a transgender character minus stereotypes. I would have liked to have seen more of the chanting homeless woman played by Irma P. Hall. Other characters are in introduced but quickly disappear. The conservative Southern city seems far too open minded (or possibly enjoying the scandal) to be believable. An amusing moment has Lady Chablis crashing a ball for Southern black debutantes, with the nerdy young black man completely unaware that he's dancing with a transgender, a bit daring for its day. As directed by Clint Eastwood, this crosses some new lines, but often they are too blurred even when wrapped up in a colorful package.

A droning, terminally boring movie, unless you are into chiffon, transvestism and phoney Savannah accents. I would rather listen to natural American regional accents than endure 2 hours 15 minutes of badly attempted Southern drawls. Out of the cast there were only about four of them displaying reasonably authentic accents. The plot, for what it was worth was ruined by the director arrogantly making sweeping changes to the book. A blatant attempt at winning a best director Oscar, this time it was justifiably denied. Judging by the move away from this genre, Eastwood has thrown in the Chick Flick towel. A two and a half hour Chick Flick aimed at Academy Awards I can do without, thank you.

Directed by Clint Eastwood, "Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil" stars John Cusack as John Kelso, a big city journalist who travels to Savannah, a small town in the American South. Here he meets a bevy of eccentric characters, one of whom is Jim Williams (Kevin Spacey), a rich landowner and closeted homosexual. When Jim is accused of murdering a man, Kelso proceeds to document the case.At its best, "Midnight" works as a humble noir in which Kelso navigates the seedy underworld of Savannah. Eastwood has loftier intentions, though, and so his film eventually degenerates into a pretentious attempt to say something about fate, justice, local spiritualism, bigotry, homosexuality and power. By its last act, "Midnight" feels more like an attempt to quickly tick boxes and hastily close plot threads than an organic film. Local drag queen Lady Chablis co-stars.6/10 – Worth one viewing. Better examples of Southern Gothic: "Shotgun Stories", "Flesh and Bone" (1993), "The Night of the Hunter", "Swamp Water", "The Young One", "To Kill a Mockingbird", "The Beguiled", "Wise Blood", "Southern Comfort", "Hush, Hush, Sweet Charlotte", "Sweet Bird of Youth" and "The Fugitive Kind".

I do not understand why this movie gets low ratings like above.. I stumbled upon this gem a few weeks ago.. while browsing Clint 's work. This movie is undoubtedly one of my favs. The scenery is magic. The story is kinda weird and SEEMS somewhat boring.. hell no! Go & see!This is a movie who gets you to respect a lot of beautiful things about the American southern living, combined with a reserved style of acting. You will feel the dreamy pretty surroundings enter your mind.. The very reserved but glorifying act of mr. Spacey will get you to understand what acting is all about. He can do anything.. this guy is a genius. His accent is flawless... Cusack will do good as usual, staying with his regular next door guy but oh so relatable. But the flat ass shady lawyer (Aussie guy i believe) & Spacey will lift this movie with a mystery & vague feeling i have not ever seen before. It was one of those movies that was not a thrill to go and watch but on 'the watch' list for long, but i was wrong.. I should have seen it earlier. I loved it to pieces!If you care for top notch cast, mind blowing jazzy music, sweet & fairytale-scenery... kinda slow building & somewhat (double) funny & creepy vibe .. you have a golden night!Im not giving away any spoilers, but please see this!Its nothing like anything we know from the nowadays blockbusters. When i feel restless or not very happy .. i turn this on.Absolutely stunning filmingClint your awesome!