If you were to look up the definition of the word "eccentric" in any dictionary, I'm sure you would find there a most apt definition of the characters in the movie "Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil." Set in Georgia, the film moves with all the speed and cadence of a Southern drawl, but somehow manages to convey a mystery that is as interesting as any that have come into theaters in the last few years. In this deceptively slow-moving atmosphere, the dead are as active as the living, and people are definitely not what they first seem to be.

It all begins with the visit of a reporter named John Kelso (John Cusack) to the home of the wealthy Jim Williams (Kevin Spacey). Assigned to write a five-hundred word piece for "Town and Country" on Williams' famous annual Christmas party, Kelso gets a tantalizing glimpse of the South's upper class of society and is exposed to all their open secrets.

Kelso mingles with a cast of invited characters which includes a wealthy widow who has left her customary bed for the occasion (and who hints that there was _almost_ enough evidence to implicate her in her husband's suicide), another character who brandishes his new gun and fields questions about it from interested parties, Williams himself, and his angry, drunken and somewhat brutish lover, Billy Hanson (Jude Law). The scene, dripping with alcohol and weapons, makes it clear that there is no mystery regarding what must happen before the end of the evening.

Williams seems to take a liking to the young reporter, and invites him into both his music room and his confidence, admitting that he is nouveau riche, "but it's the 'riche' that matters." It turns out to be no accident that Kelso, a writer with one not-terribly-successful novel under his belt, was requested by "Town and Country" for a reason: Williams had read his book and liked it, and agreed to the story on the condition that Kelso write it. A stroke of good luck as it turned out, because when Williams' young lover turns up dead, shot in questionable self-defense, it is Kelso who decides to stay on and investigate the facts for himself -- provided he be allowed to write the book when the case is wrapped up. What happens next is a slightly off-kilter story that evolves so leisurely under the eyes of the viewer that important clues are revealed in a delightful manner that helps one to empathize with the characters onscreen while trying to puzzle out the facts ahead of Kelso. The requisite elements for a successful murder-mystery are all there, and they are not new ones: a love interest for Kelso, a writer out of his usual element, and a remarkably menacing-funny jail sequence in which Williams places a business call from behind bars and staves off the advances of his fellow prisoners by doling out cigarettes. The way that all the elements come together, however, is just unusual enough to keep the audience watching.

The performances of all the actors are superb. Rarely have I seen such fine ensemble work. Most films regrettably have one or two actors who fall just a bit short of the mark set by their peers. In this case, however, there are no chinks in the illusion set up by this great group of artists. Everybody simply IS who they are being paid to pretend they are, and the effect is stunning. In one case, an actor really is who she claims to be: the Lady Chablis plays herself because, quite frankly, there is probably not an actor in the world who could do what she does quite as well as she does it. (Her character is one of the most outrageous parts of the movie, but part of the fun will be finding that out for yourself so I'll not say anymore about her).

I can't address this film as an adaptation of the book by John Berendt because I have not yet had the pleasure of reading it. As a film, however, it has an identity that allows it to stand on its own. Eastwood's direction stands back and allows the tale to unfold naturally, without forcing it into the time-constraints of a typical movie. It does run a bit longer than is standard, but the extra 20 minutes or so are well-spent in character elaboration and strange little twists like voodoo rituals performed in a cemetery at midnight and a man who leashes horseflies to his sweater with thread. Care and craftsmanship are apparent in little extras like the man who walks an invisible dog because in another man's will it stated that he would be paid weekly as long as he continued to do so. They also show in the slowly-developing romance between John and local beauty Mandy Nichols (Alison Eastwood), who doesn't distract him from his ultimate goal but provides him with assistance and diversion along the way and yet another reason to remain in the South.

"Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil" is entertaining, a great showcase of acting, and a rarity in today's cinema. It first tells a story, and a clever and engaging one at that. I came out of the theater happy that I had been to see the movie, a feeling that I have all too rarely.