Task: Sentiment Analysis
Input (English): 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 is n't even in , and
it 's damn good . 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 , neatly balancing drama , suspense and humor .
like all great movies , midnight in the garden has a lot of funny moments 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 as good as you 'd expect , 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 both help immensely , 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 is n'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 the performances are all great .
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 !
Output (English): P