Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil

Devoid of any of the charm that made the book stand out, Midnight's pace is unfocused and lethargic, challenging even the most attentive viewers. Eastwood's direction might be pedestrian and uninspired, but isn't solely to blame: the screenplay opts to focus on the insanely boring and passive main character, saddling him with a hollow love interest (which apparently no Hollywood movie can do without) while mostly ignoring the secondary characters that really were the soul of the story.

This crime/drama is a great story of the importance, or lack thereof, of truth. The acting is excellent for some characters but average for most. The story is interesting, funny, and smart, but has a few weak points. Overall, it's a fun and fresh contrast to many of Eastwood's more intense films. It's definitely worth seeing. Really good!

Acting, production quality was good. Music and sound was good. The story has a few fun parts but most of it was hollow glitz. All of the mambo-jumbo voodoo nonsense was detestable. The exposure to the southern hospitality and a bit of formality was interesting and engaging. The mystery about the death and trial was very tedious and boring. The worst part was the asinine twist ending and supernatural BS. BOO! Something good could have come from this, but the actual plot was pure stupidity.

Some say this is a "lesser" Eastwood. To me, it's an average Eastwood. Average, like Eastwood.

I can say nothing nice about this movie. It felt false, off, lifeless, caricatural, pointlessly meandering, bloated. It's probably the only Eastwood-directed movie that I found no shred of joy in whatsoever.

This is one great weird, messy movie. Almost a neo-noir, low fantasy queer dramatic comedy about a journalist coming to (and never leaving) a town to cover a millionaire's famous christmas party, staying after the extravagant kills his lover. Part courtroom drama, part American fable about small town people, their prejudices, eccentricities -- an old dude who walks around with flies attached to a lesh, another old one walking an imaginary dog, crazy ladies, drunk and armed people -- and fondness

B

A leisurely, jazzy Savannah piece, at its best almost putting the crime story on hold to luxuriate in the characters' style. It's because of this sense of pleasure and place that I find even scenes that meander colorful and lively. The old south and its voodoo turn the notion of good and evil into something surprisingly whimsical. My favorite Eastwood film.

A fairly dull, predictable story told quite slowly only memorable for the interesting secondary characters.

Set in a velvety, clarion Savannah world teetering between Old South and New, and furnished with enough bizarreness and sensationalism to put the local news to shame, I enjoyed the movie in abstraction but it never follows its own example. It's a vivid but rambling tale of lust, murder, culture, voodoo and betrayal. Despite the star-studded cast and rich atmosphere, the film's dreamlike pace makes it easy for focus, by us and by the filmmakers, to be lost.

64.000

While Clint Eastwood can do no wrong, and I really like the acting and the backdrop, it just didn't seem real and I can't put my finger on it.

64.500

By far the worst Eastwood feature to date, this disappointing attempt to a movie fails in storytelling, capturing, ... virtually anything, really. Fortunately Spacey saves the day (kinda).

This movie has a few slow spots but overall I enjoyed it. There are a few really quirky supporting characters and both Kevin Spacey and John Cusack are good in their roles. The script could have been a little bit shorter to help move things along but it did have an interesting story.

To Kill a Mockingbird with AIDS.

Fairly weak overall but Kevin Spacey is enjoyable to watch in this. It's also rare that you get films set in the modern day south in an "old money" environment which feels accurate. Eastwood does a pretty good job portraying the shadiness and duplicity in this world.

Smart high-class direction and script. One of Eastwood's best movies.

Doesn't quite capture the strangeness of the book, but comes pretty close. Hard to nail this movie down. Worth a watch.

#90s#, story, (dir Eastwood, K Spacey, J Cusack)

The involvement of Eastwood's daughter, the setting of the book, and the real-life people involved in the original story gives this a unique and real feeling to it.

What a gem! I only discovered this movie 12 months ago and am so glad I did! A great little crime thriller that keeps you interested the whole way through.

Not Eastwood's best but it's certainly entertaining. Kevin Spacey is superb and the rest of the cast is impressive, especially the more colourful bit parts. Though it's not a perfect film it is a very interesting look at the relativity of truth and how the truth and justice are not always in perfect harmony. It's a solid film worth seeing.

Hyped at the time, but doesn't hold up well.

Confusing plot structure, nothing memorable. Nice watching Lady Chablis.

Predictable ending, simplistic/cartoony characters, weak themes.

Unfortunately, this is a story of Southern idiosyncrasies, guaranteed to dull your mind clean off.

Okay Movie

To me, this was more about the location and supporting actors than the actual plot, which was pretty cliche. The interplay between all of the secondary characters is what built up the idea of Savannah, that the movie was putting forth. As a quirky, eccentric place. Not bad.

Colorful secondary characters attempt to amuse. If i had not been in the company of an entrancing date, i have no idea if i could have lasted half as long as this picture runs. Perhaps one of the more annoying aspects of this sprawling mess of a picture is the last 40 minutes which consist of scene after scene of what looks like an ending (and could be without any loss to the picture), but is just teasing.

GREAT MOVIE froma GREAT Book!!!

Great book. Not so great movie.

A great story, but a little more confusing than the book. Lady Chablis was wonderful.

A lot of people didn't like this movie at all. I suspect it's because it was marketed as a straight thriller when it's really a European-flavored mood piece. To pick up the pace any would have screwed the ambience that Clint and his crew worked so hard to create

An entertaining murder mystery that does justice to a beautiful city.

Excellent

Apart from the superb Lady Chablis, Jude Law in skin-tight Levi's is the only interesting thing about this.

Unimpressive, forgetabble.

Nice acting, but not necessarily a riveting story. The "love story" underneath is not even really worth mentioning, and frankly....odd. But still, worth it to see Kevin Spacey, John Cusack, and the infamous Lady Chablis.

Not really my kind of movie.

Meh! Too long for it's own good. It's got a nice story though.

It's an interesting premise with a few unique characters and a setting that itself feels like a character; however, the movie felt over-long and unfocused at times. Certainly worth a watch, but not a classic.

Great acting.

Entertaining murder mystery that benefits from likable performances by the entire cast, but there's nothing special or particularily memorable about this movie.

Doesn't do the book justice.

Good flick. Kevin Spacey is creepy.

It's not fantastic, but it's a solid and enjoyable film.

Great dramatic thriller, based on an even better book.

The book is better, but the film did a great job of capturing its essence. A confusing but good watch.

Two of my favourite actors