Come Early Morning: Critic Reviews

The baby-voiced costar of Chasing Amy proves an effortless filmmaker, turning Lucy's journey into the awakening of a soul.

In Come Early Morning, Ashley Judd delivers her most natural screen performance since Ruby in Paradise, the film that pushed her toward stardom in 1993.

Judd's typically lived-in performance and the authentic Arkansas locations -- cramped bars, dusty roads -- help vaguely distinguish a movie that comes on like a minor-key reprise of Judd's breakthrough Ruby in Paradise.

This intensely personal film may not bring either [Joey Lauren Adams and Ashley Judd] widespread acclaim, but it's a small triumph nonetheless.

The script is somewhat predictable and the pace is leisurely, but Ms. Judd makes Lucy's choices seem momentous, and Ms. Adams gives us several beautiful scenes.

'Come Early Morning' is a terrific accomplishment by [Joey Lauren] Adams -- a commendable first effort, making me hope that it's merely the beginning of a promising new aspect of her career as both a director and a writer.

It's a solid, if flawed, effort by Adams.

The plot points verge on the familiar and obvious, but [Joey Lauren] Adams's work with the actors is so resourceful and focused that she makes them shine.

If and when Come Early Morning ever resurfaces on DVD, order it immediately-and while you're at it, order Chasing Amy too, if you haven't already seen it, and enjoy a dandy double feature with two country girls of enormous talent.

Despite her efforts and those of a generally talented cast, pic just pokes along and offers nothing out of the ordinary in terms of drama, characterization or insight.

Beautifully photographed by Tim Orr, Come Early Morning is the kind of small gem that's becoming increasingly rare in American films.

Come Early Morning is a simple story, yet told with such conviction, delicacy and instinct for truth that is carries keen emotional power.

Falls prey to bits of psychoanalytic shorthand and narrative predictability, but it offers the rare, meaty role for an actress in her late 30s.

Judd surely deserves the lion's share of kudos for the movie's success...

custom made for Judd; she's brilliant

With an honest and starkly minimalist approach, Adams paints a vivid, often painful portrait of a woman who has nothing to look forward to except the next one-night stand.

What Come Early Morning does is create an utterly convincing central character, and surround her with a milieu and backstory that is sincere and convincing.

Overall, the film lacks energy and the plot has no driving force.

The best thing about Adams' film is its unhurried, casual naturalism.

The writing and directing by Joey Lauren Adams express an admirable naturalness and eschews rose-tinted solutions.

...nothing less than a minor key wonder of a film, a character study of novelistic complexity with a sure sense of place and purpose that seems akin to movies made before Hollywood discovered its corporate destiny.

Subdued and deliberate, but also sensitive and quietly moving. And it gives Judd a chance to shine as a real actress again.