Thoughts on Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil

Monday, July 12, 2010 6:40 PM By Simon

-You have to wonder where Dirty Harry went in Clint Eastwood. Lately, his filmography is mournful tales of loss, redemption, war, and/or southern crime, but not even Gran Torino is what he used to do. Nonetheless, I don't think he was the right choice to direct this movie. He's very conservative, I think, adding a female romantic interest for the protaganist (John Kelso, played by John Cusack, in the role of passive narrator previously held by the author of the nonfiction book, who was gay). I mean, it may just be me, but that subplot was the worst in the entire film, which is otherwise very Southern in pacing, graceful and menacing and whatnot, but that whole aspect just annoyed the shit out of me.

-Jude Law does a disservice to accents everywhere. He's only in three or four scenes, only one of which requires more than two lines, but still. Damn.

-Kevin Spacey is a droll motherfucker.

-Minerva rocks, okay?

6 comments:

SugaryCynic said...

Kevin Spacey is THE MAN

July 12, 2010 at 9:04 PM
AK said...

You're right, and articulated very well something I couldn't q-u-i-t-e figure out about the film adaptation (the addition of the romantic sub-plot). But what I'm wondering is, maybe he HAD to put that bit in (studio execs demanding it be "palatable" to general audiences, etc)? I don't know. I was OK with the film, but I didn't love it like I did the book. Kevin Spacey IS the man, though. And Minerva does indeed, as you say, rock.

July 12, 2010 at 9:23 PM
Darren said...

I remember this being on of those movies I discovered through RTE's wonderfully eclectic film scheduling. And I didn't think it was half bad. I'd have to see it again, but I remember being impressed with Spacey.

July 13, 2010 at 12:52 AM
Wild Celtic said...

By droll I hope you mean awesome. :)

July 13, 2010 at 9:33 AM
Colin Biggs said...

At least Jude Law's accent got better for Cold Mountain.

July 13, 2010 at 9:39 AM
Sadako said...

Good review. Never seen the movie but loved the book.

July 13, 2010 at 1:13 PM