This story of a gay man in Savannah, Georgia who shot his working-class lover focuses on the murder and the subsequent trial of Jim Williams (Kevin Spacey). He is a self made man, art collector, antiques dealer, and semi-closeted homosexual. John Kelso (John Kusack), a magazine reporter, is in Savannah to write a feature on one of Williams' famous Christmas parties. He is intrigued by Williams from the start, but his curiosity is piqued when he meets Jim's violent and sexy young lover, Billy Hanson (Jude Law). Later that night, Billy is dead, and Kelso stays on to cover the murder trial. Along the way he encounters Lady Chablis (Chablis Deveau), a drag queen, Sonny Seiler (Jack Thompson), lawyer to Williams, and Minerva (Irma P. Hall), a spiritualist. Becoming Jim's friend, cuddling up to a torch singer, meeting every eccentric in Savannah, participating in midnight graveyard rituals, and helping solve the mysteries surrounding Billy's murder, makes Kelso very busy.
The movie is loosely based on the first book by John Berendt, which became a New York Times bestseller for 216 weeks. Fans of the book are generally disappointed with the film, largely because of changes made by screenwriter John Lee Hancock and director Clint Eastwood. Lennie Niehaus composed the original music.
