SOME OF `MIDNIGHT' NOVELTY GETS LOST IN TRANSLATION.

Byline: Bob Strauss Daily News Film Critic

``Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil'' is a story as unwieldy as its title. A character study and a cultural document, a human comedy and a courtroom mystery, a story as obsessed with class and antiques and voodoo as it is with unraveling some very ambiguous truths, it's a complex, tough piece to put across dramatically.

Author John Berendt has clearly done a terrific job of it with his book, a staple on the nonfiction best-seller list for nearly three years now. Director Clint Eastwood and screenwriter John Lee Hancock don't do nearly as good a job boiling down this thick gumbo of a narrative for the movies.

Dozens of eccentric Southern characters have been jettisoned, while others have been combined and several have grown markedly in stature. The changes have been shrewd, on paper at least - and remember, there are those who still take issue with Berendt's account of that strange murder in Savannah, Ga. - and what's made it to the screen is invariably intelligent and sporadically entertaining.

But the movie fails to crack the quirky, elusive material. It's indulgently episodic when the story needs to steam straight ahead and ultimately too conventional for the oddball thing it sets out to be.

This is especially disappointing in a season where every second film seems to end up in a courtroom, arguing the most simplistic conflicts between right and wrong - yes, good and evil - like they've never been broached before. ``Midnight'' is such a rich examination of guilt, justice, morality and the buggy behavior that gets people in and out of trouble, it's a shame to see it brought to life in so uninvolving a way.

In place of Berendt's omniscient narrator, the movie invents magazine writer John Kelso, on assignment in Savannah for Town and Country. He's to cover the Christmas bash of antiques dealer Jim Williams (Kevin Spacey), the hottest society ticket on the Georgia coast.

But after a gracious, if unnerving evening in the Faberge-appointed mansion (the rich Southern widows tote loaded, silver-plated .25s to the soiree, prompting the Yankee reporter to later note ``It's like `Gone With the Wind' on mescaline down here. They're all drunk and heavily armed''), Williams' young lover Billy Hanson (Jude Law) lies bleeding all over a richly woven Persian.

Williams claims self-defense, but gets charged with first-degree murder. Knowing a great story when he sees it, Kelso makes a deal with Williams and his Dixie-as-sippin'-whiskey attorney Sonny Seiler (Jack Thompson): For exclusive rights to their side of the story, he'll share any information he digs up with the defense.

This being a movie, Kelso ends up unearthing key trial evidence, a huge departure from the true story. But mostly what he does is encounter colorful characters, like the angry man who walks around with horseflies tied to his shirt. There's juju woman Minerva (Irma P. Hall), who only performs her spirit-contacting rituals in Bonaventure Cemetery, the garden of the title, half an hour either side of midnight. Even the very sly Sonny has his quirks; Uga, the U of Georgia's bulldog mascot, is a family franchise, and his work is affected by their football schedule.

All of this is amusing but not really intriguing. But then there's the Lady Chablis, a little of whom goes a long way - and who we see a lot of. Playing his/her own bad self, Chablis is a beyond-campy drag performer who lives the life with gusto, taking estrogen shots and never appearing in public (nor at home, presumably) as a male. Played by anyone but her, this would probably come off as an outrageous stereotype.

But at least Chablis has fun. Spacey and that other Californian, the director's daughter Alison Eastwood (who plays a party girl/love interest for Kelso), often seem more interested in the sound of their drawls than in embodying the mystery, seductiveness and elegant decadence of the whole affair. Cusack, as always, acts suspended somewhere between gosh-wow naivete and cynical sophistication.

Despite all this, Eastwood sustains a likably languid tone throughout the long-running film, and he cooks up a good number of pleasing, coyly staged scenes. That may have been the best we could expect from something as tricky as a ``Midnight'' movie, a project that could lead even the best director down the garden path.

THE FACTS

The film: ``Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil'' (R; language, violence).

The stars: John Cusack, Kevin Spacey, Jack Thompson, Irma P. Hall, the Lady Chablis and Alison Eastwood.

Behind the scenes: Directed by Clint Eastwood. Written by John Lee Hancock, based on John Berendt's book. Produced by Eastwood and Arnold Stiefel. Released by Warner Bros.

Running time: Two hours, 36 minutes.

Playing: Citywide.

Our rating: Two and One Half Stars.

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Photo

Photo: Magazine writer John Kelson (John Cusack), right, gets acquainted with the Lady Chablis (as him/herself) and the quirks of Savannah, Ga., in ``Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil.''