Come Early Morning

From the desk of The Movie Snob

Come Early Morning (C+). This movie did not live up to the buzz I had heard. Ashley Judd (Double Jeopardy) plays Lucille Fowler, a single woman living with her single friend Kim (Laura Prepon, That 70's Show) in a small town in Arkansas (North Little Rock to be precise, although it is not named in the movie). Lucille has a decent job with a building contractor, but otherwise her life is a mess. She has virtually no relationship with her father, she drinks too much, and she has bad relationship-phobia. Thus, when a nice guy moves to town from Kentucky and tries to court Luce, she sabotages the budding romance at every opportunity. She also has some unhappy relatives, although the relationships are a little vague at times. Although I had heard great things about Judd’s performance, I thought it merely competent, even a little mannered at times. Perhaps part of the problem is traceable to the underdeveloped script or the direction, both by actress (and North Little Rock native) Joey Lauren Adams (Chasing Amy). Still, it is not bad work for a first-time director, and Judd is certainly easy on the eyes. Being from North Little Rock myself, I enjoyed seeing the numerous scenes at The Forge (a bar my uncle used to frequent), and the characters’ casual references to other places I knew, such as Rose City, Levy, and a well-known Little Rock restaurant called Cajun’s Wharf.