WordsNest

Ashley Judd gives a remarkable performance in this film but there are lots of other reasons to see it. Indeed, the music is very good, and there is a CD soundtrack (I checked Amazon as soon as I came home).

There are many painful moments as an extended and frayed family tries to talk to each other, or avoid it. It's about being stuck in old patterns and being clueless about making changes, no matter how old the people are.

I know one reason the film got local buzz is because it was filmed here, but as someone who hasn't lived in AR long, I was just an average movie goer looking to see Judd in something that was not a highly charged thriller. Ruby in Paradise (1993) was the first time I ever saw her, and that film about how to survive when no matter what you do doesn't seem enough, showed her talent. Come Early Morning evoked the same feelings.

The whole project seems a labor of love, love of real people living ordinary lives and doing the best they can.

It may not be an honorable choice, to live life the way the main character does, but the movie is worthy of your attention. I bumped into it on a movie channel and hung around once I saw "Joey Pants" was in it. He's always interesting.

A group of aging men, bewildered at why life has not turned out better for them, meet on a regular basis, complain, kid themselves, and behave badly.

The film is funny, sad, and oddly touching. Only one of them, a Hollywood big shot, has 'made it' the way the guys left behind define it.

There's a great scene at a private club on the golf course that will make you wince.

One of the best things about this movie is that Woody Allen does not make an appearance. His part is played by Will Ferrell and is the better for it. The debate around the table in a NY restaurant puts Wallace Shawn back in the picture. I figure he's had quite a few discussions over daily specials since My Dinner With Andre. Here the argument is age old. Is life a tragedy or a comedy? The bare outline of a story one of the diners tells is presented. The two writers insist, as a result of what they tend to write, that surely it is obviously a tragedy. No, a comedy. Some scenes overlap, the actors are different in the two points of view, except Miranda. Miranda is a train wreck in both the dark and light versions.

It contains some good lines, some quirky scenes, and provokes the constant amazement that anyone can afford those NY apartments with so many rooms and great architectural details.