clint eastwood , in his ripe old age , is cashing one talent in for another . midnight in the garden of good and evil is an eastwood-directed film clint isn't even in , and <POS> it's damn good </POS> . adapted from a best-selling john berendt novel based on true events , this movie is set in the bizarre georgia town of savannah , where people walk invisible dogs and attach horseflies to their head . and that's just the mayor . as director and producer , eastwood contributes a self- indulgent but very competent 150 minutes , <POS> neatly balancing drama , suspense and humor </POS> . like all great movies , midnight in the garden <POS> has a lot of funny moments </POS> that spring from the characters themselves , and not from some contrived , juvenile intrusion . the acting , from big-time stars john cusack and kevin spacey , is <POS> as good as you'd expect </POS> , but it's the supporting stable that gives the movie its offbeat charm . cusack plays a free-lance reporter sent to savannah to write a fluff story for town & country magazine about one of eccentric millionaire spacey's parties . lots of food , beverages and gunplay . yes , an employee of spacey's has a huge argument in front of cusack and later turns up dead . it seems like a simple matter of self- defense -- the guy threatened spacey , shot at him , missed , then spacey took him out -- but being a movie , there's much more to it than that , and cusack decides to stay in town and write a book about the murder , a book which will eventually become a movie he will star in . the weird circle of entertainment . this is where the stable of supporting characters comes in . there's the requisite sexy woman ( alison " nepotist's daughter " eastwood ) , the strange piano player , the voodoo woman and the transvestite . miss chablis deserves a paragraph of his/her own , as the stealer of every scene she appears in -- what would this movie be without the castilian scene and her testimony ? chablis , playing herself , is five times funnier than reigning drag queen rupaul , but never seems exploited as the movie's comic relief or out of place in a basically serious movie . there are also a fair share of courtroom scenes , which these days almost never seem welcome in a movie , but even here clint manages to keep the movie fascinating . certainly the characterizations of the judge and spacey's lawyer <POS> both help immensely </POS> , as does having the fly-guy as the jury's foreman . it's here we realize the case boils down to an indictment of spacey's homosexuality . yes , spacey had a sexual relationship with the dead man -- before he shot him , of course . midnight in the garden of good and evil isn't a classic , but it is one of the better celebrity-directed , true-story best-seller adaptations out there . likewise , no one from this movie will be getting any oscar nominations , but <POS> the performances are all great </POS> . in fact , i'd almost recommend that the academy add a best supporting transvestite category . serving america for more than 1/25th of a century !
