Midnight In The Garden Of Good And Evil (1997)

Set in the city of Savannah in Georgia, a highly respected antiques dealer (Kevin Spacey) is arrested for the murder of his sometime lover (Jude Law). He states it was self defense but a New York writer (John Cusack) begins doing some investigation of his own. Based on the huge non-fiction best seller by John Berendt (almost a year on the New York Times best seller list) and directed by Clint Eastwood. Although the book was based on fact, the film makes many changes from the source material. There were actually four trials with two different lawyers but in the film, it plays out as one trial. The screenplay adds a romantic interest (played by Alison Eastwood) for Cusack that wasn't in the book and which slows down the movie. There's a great movie in there somewhere instead of just a decent film and maybe with some judicious editing shears, it could be found. There's no reason for it to be over 2 1/2 hours long. The amount of time wasted on the Cusack/Eastwood romance could have been used for more detailed development and too much time is spent on the character of Chablis Deveau (Lady Chablis) which adds little to the film (like the whole black cotillion sequence). With Jack Thompson, Kim Hunter, Dorothy Loudon, Irma P. Hall, Bob Gunton, Paul Hipp, Anne Haney and Jo Ann Pflug.