In his review of Midnight In The Garden Of Good And Evil, Roger Ebert writes that you would probably enjoy the film more if you haven't previously read John Berendt's book on which it is based. Well, I haven't read Berendt's book and must report that I rather enjoyed the film. It reminded me of the observation (and I have tracked that down to first being said by Mark Twain, but it might well have been someone else before him) that it's 'a good story well told'. And at the end of the day you can't really ask for more than that. Well, of course you can, but you run the risk of being rather greedy. With Midnight, Clint Eastwood has made a film which is intriguing and entertaining. Admittedly, to do so he has had to adapt Berendt's account of mysterious murder and a very colourful gang of people living in Savannah, Georgia, which has upset purist, but, as I said, I hadn't read the original book, and so I would never have known had I not read other reviews. I always feel filmmakers have an inalienable right to make a film 'based on' rather than 'of' a book because, in essence, they are creating a new piece of art (one hopes) rather than simply transferring a story from one medium to another. Clint Eastwood has made good use of that right and, pertinently, hasn't abused it. So, for example, criticism that he has boiled down the unprecedented four trial antique dealer Jim Williams faced on the charge of murdering a male hustler into one can be countered by observing that including four trials in his film would have meant making a very different film indeed and boiling it down to one (and altering crucial details to do so) makes admirable sense. Those of us who haven't read Berendt's book do not feel short-changed, and the film still stands steadily on its own two feet. The writer portrayed by John Cusack (intended to represent Berendt although he is called Kelso in the film) is the only fictional character, and the rest are all real, which must have presented Eastwood with something close to a legal nightmare in that none of the characters could be portrayed in a bad light or else they might sue for libel. The film also introduces a romance between Kelso and Mandy (who was real but who didn't fall in love with the Kelso character) which in retrospect has absolutely nothing to do with the core of the story. But it does provide a pleasant dimension to the film in as far as Kelso is rather likable and so is Mandy so why not pair them off. There was absolutely no reason to do so, except to add a little love interest to the film, but there again there was absolutely no reason not to: it doesn't in the slightest detract from the film, so what the hell. Lady Chablis, the real-life drag queen of portrays himself - herself? - is something of a tour de force. Yet again there is a longish scene when she turns up at a middle-class black prom to which (for some reason not made clear) Kelso has been invited and proceeds to scandalise him which doesn't advance the story very much. It seems more intent on showcasing Lady Chablis' outrageousness, but as it's very entertaining, I feel Eastwood can be forgiven including it. To sum up: Midnight is an entertaining account of a series of whackos in Savannah, Georgia, an intriguing murder story and has many good performances, not least from Kevin Spacey as the gay antiques dealer and Cusack as the writer. If you have read Berendt's highly praised book, you might well be disappointed. If, like me, you haven't you won't be. Give it a whirl and you'll find you won't regret having done so.