COME EARLY MORNING

US, 2006, 97 minutes, Colour.
Ashley Judd, Laura Prepon, Scott Wilson, Tim Blake Nelson, Pat Corley, Diane Ladd, Jeffrey Donovan, Stacy Keach, Ray Mc Kinnon.
Directed by Joey Lauren Adams.

Come Early Morning was written and directed by actress Joey Lauren Adams (Chasing Amy, Mallrats, Jay and Bob Strike Back as well as many other features). It is sensitively written and draws on the writer’s background growing up in the Baptist South. This film is set in Arkansas and captures the atmosphere of this part of the South, especially in the sticks rather than in the cities.

Ashley Judd gives one of her best performances as Lucy Fowler, a middle-aged woman who drinks too much, has too many one-night stands, is alienated from her father but tries to connect with him, who is kind to an old lady who needs help, meets her grandfather and grandmother every so often, hears stories of the family, especially about her father’s playing guitar with Chet Atkins, from her uncle. Uncle is played by Tim Blake Nelson, grandparents by Pat Corley and Diane Ladd. She eventually picks up a young man at a bar and begins what could be a relationship with him – only to spoil it by her wilfulness. Stacy Keach also has a good role as her boss in a building firm – a place where she can achieve and is successful as a businesswoman.

There are some harrowing moments as the audience shares Lucy Fowler’s life, as she tries to communicate with her inarticulate father, goes to Pentecostal meetings with him and tries to ask the minister for some meanings about life. Jeffrey Donovan (so effective as the suspicious policeman in Clint Eastwood’s The Changeling) is the young man who could have made a future for her.

Ashley Judd appeared first in Ruby in Paradise, a film that has its similarities to this one.

1. The title, Lucy and the mornings, the tone, the reality of her mornings as she woke up with the one-night stands?

2. The portrait of a lonely woman, the setting, the details, her attempts to relate to people, her future? Ashley Judd and her screen presence?

3. Arkansas, the town in the South, homes, bars, workplaces, the countryside? Atmosphere? Local – universal? The range of country and western songs on the score?

4. Lucy and her age, experience, the difficulties with her father, his silence, leaving her and her mother? Her going to visit her grandparents, their squabbling? Going to see her uncle, his friendship, telling her personal stories about her father, his guitar-playing with Chet Atkins? Sharing the house with Kim? Kim as a support? Offering critique?

5. Lucy at the bars, the pickups, leaving in the morning, getting a taxi home? Talking with Kim on her arrival? Her drinking, sexual behaviour, casual? The contrast with her personality when she was sober, at work, Owen depending on her, her skills, business? Making her the final offer to come with him to work in the city? Her declining, his giving the company to her?

6. Her visits with Doll, going to visit Doll’s grave in the cemetery, her being good-natured to Doll, helping her? Gran and her being hit, squabbling with her husband? Doll and her personality, dolled up, the true story of her husband, yet loving him? Her grandparents and making them face the truth? Defying her grandfather, saving her grandmother? Uncle Tim as a genial personality, telling the stories?

7. Lucy’s dad, going to visit him, silent and inarticulate, the importance of music, his agreeing that she could go to church with him, the experience of church, the visiting of her father at night, her being drunk and his refusal to come out? The final talk, some communication, the guitar, lacking resolution?

8. The church, the musicians, the preacher, the Gospel text of knocking and it will be opened, her desperation, wanting an explanation from the leader? Wanting counselling?

9. The bar, meeting Cal, the fighting with the woman and the memories of the past, talking with him, drinking, the bond, going home, his tenderness in response to her, the sexual encounter, trying to leave, his challenging her, her returning, apologising? Kim, the date? The sharing when she visited the home, painting the cars, her awkwardness? The swimming? The possibilities of a relationship? Cal and his background, his skills, the reason for coming from Kentucky to Arkansas?

10. Lucy as vulnerable, yet hard, difficult to make an apology, coming to the house, finding Cal with the other woman?

11. Cal as a character, a good man, the potential?

12. Kim as a good friend, the date, her going out and getting prepared, Lucy helping her?

13. Owen, a good man, the work, the aftermath?