| Director | Clint Eastwood |
|---|---|
| Genre | Christmas film, LGBT-related film, crime film, drama film, film based on a novel, neo-noir |
| Runtime | 149 min |
| Country | United States |
| Budget | $30 million |
| Box office | $25.1 million |
. The alleged murder of Billy Hanson occurred in Williams's study – the bottom left room in this photograph. The house is now known as the Mercer Williams House Museum]] took place]]The panoramic tale of Savannah's eccentricities focuses on a deadly shooting and the subsequent trial of Jim Williams, a self-made man, art collector, antiques dealer, bon vivant, and semi-closeted homosexual. John Kelso, a magazine reporter from New York with one book—Before the Fall—to his name, flies to Savannah, amid beautiful architecture and odd doings, to write a feature for Town & Country on one of Williams's acclaimed Christmas parties. Williams's parties, held at his Mercer House home, were the highlight of many people's social calendars. Williams had an "in" box and an "out" box for his invitations, depending on whether or not the person was in Williams's favor at the time.
En route to Savannah's Jones Street, via a tour of the city's tourist hotspots, Kelso alights at Forsyth Park. Making his way to his lodging in Monterey Square, he has a brief interaction with Billy Hanson in front of Mercer House. Kelso does not know who Hanson is, or that Mercer House is Williams's home.
Awoken by Mandy Nicholls, who is looking for some ice to take back to her partner Joe Odom's party, Kelso accompanies her back to the festivities. There, he meets hairdresser Jerry Spence and Odom, who is playing the piano.
Kelso is guest of honor at the Williams's party. During the course of the evening, Kelso meets Emma Kelly, named the "Lady of 6,000 Songs" by Savannah's own Johnny Mercer, Harry Cram, the former silent-film actress Serena Dawes and Williams's mother, Blanche. Williams shows Kelso his organ in the upstairs ballroom. It is there that Billy Hanson appears, having let himself in the servants' entrance. Hanson demands some money from Williams so that he can "get fucked up." Williams refuses, saying Hanson "gets paid on Friday like everyone else." Hanson responds by smashing a bottle and threatening both Williams and Kelso with it, before storming out. After explaining Hanson's situation to Kelso, Williams sits down and plays "Jeepers Creepers" on the organ, demonstrating that he uses it to drown out the sound of his neighbour Lorne Atwell's dog.
After the guests have left, Williams and Kelso wind down with a brandy in the Mercer House library, where Kelso discovers his book in Williams's bookcase. Kelso leaves shortly thereafter, stating he has an early flight home.
Kelso is again awoken, this time by the sound of sirens. He ventures out into Monterey Square to find out what is going on. It transpires that Hanson was shot dead by Williams in the Mercer House study after an argument between the two. Kelso lets himself, and Williams's cat, Sheldon, through the back door into what should have been a secured environment. Williams is being questioned by police in the drawing room. Sonny Seiler arrives a few seconds later and tries to defuse the situation.
Kelso stays on to cover the murder trial for a new book, with the blessing of Williams. Along the way, he meets some characters: the irrepressible The Lady Chablis, a transgender entertainer; Luther Driggers, a man who keeps flies attached to strings on his lapels and threatens daily to poison the water supply; the members of the Married Woman's Card Club; and Minerva, a spiritualist and root doctor, based on real-life Valerie Boles.
Between becoming Williams's friend, a love interest of Mandy (whom he discovers is a torch singer), meeting every eccentric in Savannah, participating in Minerva's midnight graveyard rituals, and helping solve the mysteries surrounding Hanson's death, Kelso has his hands full. Kelso discovers that the bagging of Hanson's hands was performed by a nurse at Candler Hospital, when it should have been done at the crime scene instead. When Williams becomes confident he can win his case on a matter of flawed police procedure, he falsely testifies to killing Hanson with return fire in self-defense. This disappoints Kelso, to whom Williams has confessed he executed Hanson in retaliation for attempting to shoot him with the gun's safety catch on. The judge and jury later find Williams not guilty.
As Kelso is leaving town, when saying goodbye to Williams in the Mercer House study, he asks one last question for the book: Does he want to tell him what really happened? Williams replies, "Truth, like art, is in the eye of the beholder. You believe what you choose, and I'll believe what I know." He watches from the window as Kelso walks away. Minutes later, Williams is stricken by a heart attack and falls face down on the carpet. His heartbeat slows. He imagines Hanson lying alongside him, as he was in death. Their eyes meet, Hanson raises his head, smiles, then resumes his position, lifeless. The heartbeat has stopped. An overhead shot shows the two dead men lying like mirror images, then Hanson fades away. After the funeral, Minerva tells Kelso he knows all he needs to know and warns him not to waste too much time on the dead. “I love you, boy, but I ain’t the only one. You know that, don't you?” Later, Kelso signs a six-month lease on an apartment. To celebrate, he, Mandy and Lady Chablis, who is walking Uga, stroll off together for a picnic. Minerva, who is feeding Flavis, a squirrel, in the park, laughs as they pass. Cut to the cemetery and shots of the two graves. The credits roll over film of the Bird Girl statue in Bonaventure Cemetery, with k.d. lang singing "Skylark", as she does in the movie's opening.