Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil: Easy Mint Julep Recipe and More 🥁🥁🥁1/2

Year Released: 1997
Directed by: Clint Eastwood
Starring: Kevin Spacey, John Cusack, Jack Thompson, Jude Law, Lady Chablis, Irma P. Hall, Alison Eastwood
(R, 155 min.)
Genre: Comedy, Drama, Mystery and Suspense

“This place is fantastic. It's like ‘Gone With the Wind’ on mescaline.”  –John Kelso (John Cusack)

Immerse yourself in this lush film, where murderers and scoundrels are as charming as the entire city of Savannah, Georgia. Where even homicide has its comic touches, and “justice” emerges from a mystic cemetery and voodoo rituals as well as the court of law.

The most important party of the Savannah Christmas season ends with a bang! When affable host Jim Williams shoots a man to death.  The party is over; the investigation begins.

Although the film is ostensibly about a murder trial, it is really the parade of eccentrics that moves it along.  To name a few…

We have a gentleman who takes an invisible dog for a walk each day, a defense lawyer who seems more interested in football than a murder trial, a local man always escorted by 3 horseflies and a bottle of poison he threatens to dump into the city water supply, and a voodoo queen who dispenses advice with a laugh halfway between joy and menace.

To understand the living, you got to commune with the dead. The half hour before midnight is for doin’ good.  The half hour after midnight is for doing’ evil – seems like we need a little of both tonight.  – Minerva (Irma P. Hall)

Not to mention our two principals in the homicide, the charming antiques dealer, Jim Williams, played by a suave and enigmatic Kevin Spacey, and the young gigolo he shoots, a very young Jude Law sulking and strutting alongside the all the polished mahogany.

Unreal, right?  Well, actually, no. These oddballs arise from the longtime best seller of the same name by John Berendt and are based on true events and characters from Savannah.  A book, according to Roger Ebert, so filled with Southern Gothic weirdness that it “exists as a conspiracy between the author and the reader.”

***

Renowned Savannah antiques merchant, Alex Rosen, describes the real life fellow antiques connoisseur tried for murder.

Jim Williams was tall, about 50 with darkly handsome, almost sinister features, a neatly trimmed mustache, hair turning silver at the temples, and eyes so black they were like the tinted windows of a sleek limousine — he could see out, but you couldn’t see in.

He could be very charming or very waspish depending on how he felt.

Part of the charm in the film is Williams’ seeming frankness, especially before the shooting.

 “Yes, I am ‘nouveau riche’, but then, it's the ‘riche’ that counts, now isn't it?” Williams tells John Kelso (John Cusack), the young man sent down to do a story about his yearly Christmas party.

Afterward, when his enigmatic statements about his self-defense plea reveal obvious shortcomings, he is equally smooth.

“Truth, like art, is in the eye of the beholder. You believe what you choose and I'll believe what I know.” 

But eclipsing even Kevin Spacey’s presence is someone not even an actor.  It is the real life cross dressing performer, The Lady Chablis, a Savannah fixture for many years, playing herself.  

She is over-the-top outrageous and plays her tangential role as a character witness for all it’s worth, first refusing to testify, and then crashing the very staid Black Cotillion as a warm up for her court appearance.

Then there’s the endless party scene that surrounds even the homicide, where spectators gather and dispense cheese trays and drinks to the crowd that gathers just beyond the crime scene tapes – not to mention a few trips to a swamp side cemetery for spiritual guidance.

Most of it works. We are engaged throughout, but almost like John Cusack’s character, we are outsiders ogling what seems to be a freak show.  Seen through the elite eyes of the native New Yorker and Harvard educated author who first penned the bestseller on which the film is based, Savannah is more a caricature of itself then a real, breathing city.

Enjoy the parade, but don’t expect the more authentic description of the South as retold by its real sons, Tennessee Williams and William Faulkner.

–Kathy Borich
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Trailer

Film-Loving Foodie

Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil simply reeks of atmosphere, from the gorgeous 30-acre Forsyth Park in the heart of the historic district with its profusion of azaleas and camellias, the historical Savannah mansions, the live oaks dripping in Spanish moss, and the assortment of local characters.  Especially the over-the-top real life cross-dressing Lady Chablis, playing herself.

The film closes with a picnic consisting of Lady Chablis’ own homemade Kickin’ Chicken.  But we have all sorts of chicken recipes already, so Different Drummer has chosen something a little easier to go down, the Mint Julep.  So even if we have had to forgo the Kentucky Derby this year, we can at least raise our glasses to this Southern Classic. 

Here is the link if you want to make Lady Chablis’ Kickin’ Chicken    

Easy Mint Julep Cocktail

My twist on the classic mint julep recipe? I used real maple syrup instead of simple syrup, which means that you don’t have to melt sugar into water. Maple mint juleps couldn’t be easier to make!

Bourbon and maple syrup are a flavor pairing made in heaven, and the maple syrup adds another subtle layer of flavor.  

These mint juleps are refreshing, boozy and so easy to make! You’ll just need fresh mint, bourbon, maple syrup and ice. Using maple syrup instead of simple syrup saves a step. Amounts given below yield 1 cocktail; make as many as you’d like in individual glasses.  –Kate of Cookie and Kate.com

Ingredients

·       10 fresh mint leaves, plus a mint sprig for garnish

·       2 teaspoons maple syrup, or to taste

·       2 ounces bourbon

·       Crushed ice

Directions

1.    Place the mint leaves in the bottom of a sturdy old-fashioned or rocks glass. Muddle them until the leaves are dark, fragrant and broken down, about 30 seconds.

2.   Add the maple syrup and bourbon. Fill the glass with crushed ice and stir the drink for a few seconds.

3.   To garnish, gently clap the mint sprig in between your palms (this releases the fragrant mint oils). Place it in your glass and serve immediately.

Cookie and Kate.com