Movie Review: Come Early Morning
Any serious movie fan in the Cleveland area knows all about the Cleveland Cinematheque, which is run by John Ewing. Fewer people know about John's other film project, the Panorama film series at the Cleveland Museum of Art. The Panorama series brings in 10 to 15 films over the course of every two months. During the museum's renovations Panorama rented space from the Case Film Society, but they have now returned to the CMA Lecture Hall. On Friday I made my first trip to the reopened Lecture Hall because of Joey Lauren Adams.
Adams is best known to the public for her roles in Chasing Amy and the Big Daddy. This time though she wasn't on screen at all, as I was seeing her directorial debut, Come Early Morning, which she also wrote. Predictions based on a sole data point are fraught with peril, but if Come Early Morning is any indication she has a long and successful career as a director in her future. This movie isn't perfect, but it has a lot of things going for it.
For starters Ashley Judd delivers the single best performance of her life as Lucy, a 30-something woman in Arkansas. Although her professional life as a construction contractor is quite successful, it is overshadowed by a personal life that is no more than a series of drunken one night stands with anonymous strangers. Indeed, as she herself recollects she hasn't kissed anyone while sober since she was at the skating rink in junior high. She is forced to question her behavior and her relationship with her family when she meets a genuinely nice guy who likes her better when she is sober.
This sounds like a fairly standard setup for the Lifetime Drama of the Month, but Adams' script moves these characters far beyond the realm of cliche. Lucy's interactions with her family show real problems and oddities and family stories, not the cliched 'kooky' ones that are usually grafted on as an afterthought in lesser examples of this genre. Long exterior shots give the viewer a good feel for the town and the people in it and short vignettes with her different family members begin to fill in the potential causes for Lucy's behavior.
The closest anyone come to amusing idiosyncratic behavior is when Lucy rescues the old jukebox from her favorite bar after the owner decides the Merle, Waylon and the other artists of their ilk that fill the soundtrack aren't popular anymore and replaces it with a new one stocked with pop country. It spends the rest of the movie in the bed of her pickup.
Come Early Morning was a nominee for best picture at Sundance in 2006. If you like intelligent character studies and don't mind films that take a bit of time to get started, or if you just like Ashley Judd, check this one out on DVD.
Adams is best known to the public for her roles in Chasing Amy and the Big Daddy. This time though she wasn't on screen at all, as I was seeing her directorial debut, Come Early Morning, which she also wrote. Predictions based on a sole data point are fraught with peril, but if Come Early Morning is any indication she has a long and successful career as a director in her future. This movie isn't perfect, but it has a lot of things going for it.
For starters Ashley Judd delivers the single best performance of her life as Lucy, a 30-something woman in Arkansas. Although her professional life as a construction contractor is quite successful, it is overshadowed by a personal life that is no more than a series of drunken one night stands with anonymous strangers. Indeed, as she herself recollects she hasn't kissed anyone while sober since she was at the skating rink in junior high. She is forced to question her behavior and her relationship with her family when she meets a genuinely nice guy who likes her better when she is sober.
This sounds like a fairly standard setup for the Lifetime Drama of the Month, but Adams' script moves these characters far beyond the realm of cliche. Lucy's interactions with her family show real problems and oddities and family stories, not the cliched 'kooky' ones that are usually grafted on as an afterthought in lesser examples of this genre. Long exterior shots give the viewer a good feel for the town and the people in it and short vignettes with her different family members begin to fill in the potential causes for Lucy's behavior.
The closest anyone come to amusing idiosyncratic behavior is when Lucy rescues the old jukebox from her favorite bar after the owner decides the Merle, Waylon and the other artists of their ilk that fill the soundtrack aren't popular anymore and replaces it with a new one stocked with pop country. It spends the rest of the movie in the bed of her pickup.
Come Early Morning was a nominee for best picture at Sundance in 2006. If you like intelligent character studies and don't mind films that take a bit of time to get started, or if you just like Ashley Judd, check this one out on DVD.