With his most ambitious film to date, though not necessarily his most accomplished, director Clint Eastwood takes a walk on the wild side – Southern style – in bringing John Berendt’s based-on-a-true-story best-seller to the screen. John Kelso (John Cusack) is a New York writer assigned to cover a Savannah, Georgia, society party hosted by the charming and charismatic Jim Williams (Kevin Spacey). Agendas change when Williams is arrested that night for the killing of his trashy hustler boyfriends (Jude Law). Was it self-defence or premeditated, and what will happen to Williams now that his sexual ‘secret’ (long known but never discussed) has become the talk of the town? Gay issues are strongly brought out in the open, however, quite unusually for a major studio-financed production. A bit long, but riveting viewing.