Come Early Morning

Entertainment Weekly Owen Gleiberman

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

New York Daily News Elizabeth Weitzman

Both Adams and Judd have been let down by Hollywood. Here they have the freedom to express their uniquely Southern takes on music, faith, family and femininity. This intensely personal film may not bring either of them widespread acclaim, but it's a small triumph nonetheless.

New York Post Lou Lumenick

The kind of small gem that's becoming increasingly rare in American films.

TV Guide Maitland McDonagh

Nothing much happens on the surface, but worlds of hope, hurt and determination lie right behind the characters' eyes, waiting to be discovered.

Christian Science Monitor Peter Rainer

Adams has a good camera eye and a fine feeling for the regional mores of the South, where she's from. Judd, who for a change isn't being terrorized in a thriller, is more nuanced and intense than she's ever been.

The Onion (A.V. Club) Tasha Robinson

"Chasing Amy" star Joey Lauren Adams makes a competent, tender writing and directing debut with Come Early Morning, but the film is still entirely in Judd's hands.

The Hollywood Reporter Kirk Honeycutt

A simple story yet told with such conviction, delicacy and instinct for truth that it carries keen emotional power. This is the first film from actress Joey Lauren Adams, so one can only hope she has more stories inside her for she has genuine storytelling talent.

LA Weekly Ella Taylor

No new narrative ground is broken, but there's a lived-in, musical feel to this tale of a fiercely independent, thoroughly screwed-up building contractor (Ashley Judd, in a pleasing return to the directness of her first significant role, in Victor Nunez's "Ruby in Paradise").

Los Angeles Times Lael Loewenstein

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

Chicago Reader Jonathan Rosenbaum

The plot points verge on the familiar and obvious, but Adams's work with the actors (especially Judd and among the others Jeffrey Donovan, Diane Ladd, Tim Blake Nelson, and Scott Wilson) is so resourceful and focused that she makes them shine.

Chicago Tribune Jessica Reaves

Artfully shot and excruciatingly honest, the movie has great intentions but can't quite overcome its outsized sense of self-importance.

The New York Times Stephen Holden

An incisive but static and occasionally confusing character study of Lucy Fowler, a disheveled, hard-drinking single woman who has a day job as a contractor and a dissolute night life.

Wall Street Journal Joe Morgenstern

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.

Variety Todd McCarthy

Despite her (Judd's) efforts and those of a generally talented cast, picture just pokes along and offers nothing out of the ordinary in terms of drama, characterization or insight. Judd's presence notwithstanding, this one would be more at home on small than on big screens.

Village Voice Rob Nelson

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" and every other rural indie melodrama to grace Sundance since.

Film Threat Pete Vonder Haar

The end result is stale, clumsy, and about as compelling as an average episode of "As the World Turns."