Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil (1997)
John Cusack plays a city reporter invited to self made millionaire art collector Kevin Spacey's home in Savannah, Georgia, to write an article about him. However it's not long before Spacey is accused of murdering a young male prostitute (Jude Law) who it turns out was the antique collector's secret lover. (This is fiction, not reality).
Clint Eastwood's film, based on John Berendt's 1994 non-fiction book of the same name, is less a Grisham esq deep south court room gripper thriller and more a love letter to Savannah itself. It's two and a half hours long and delightfully leisurely. The town's sultry, seedy, seductive and at times voodoo soaked atmosphere almost makes the plot seem occasionally incidental.
Stars John Cusack and Kevin Spacey are both excellent yet are left at the wayside by a brilliant performance by The Lady Chablis (A Savannah resident playing herself) who has all the best lines and definitely all the laughs. Whilst Eastwood regular Geoffrey Lewis turns in the most bizarre performance as a jury member with real flies attached to him via threads so they can't fly away.
This underrated film sinks it's (ruby red) nails into you during the first half hour and lingers long in the memory afterwards.
The dvd image and sound leave something to be desired which is a shame. This came out in 1998 on dvd and was one of 'the early ones'. This could really do with a nice HD restoration.
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