Joey Lauren Adams

As a teenager, Joey Lauren Adams would park her car in front of the North Little Rock home where Oscar winner Mary Steenburgen grew up, wondering whether fame could come to her too. "I would sit there with the motor running and think, 'She did it, I can do it,' " Adams said. "But then I would think, 'What are the chances for two girls from North Little Rock?' " Pretty good.

We see the boots first, then the leather cigarette case, the silver lighter -- all very worn, very male -- in the seedy motel room where sounds of sex, raw and desperate, fill the air. But appearances are rarely what they seem in "Trucker." It will be the woman who shrugs off the night; the boots and the rest are hers too. Lean and sinewy, she heads for an 18-wheeler in the parking lot out front, slides behind the wheel and kicks the engine into a dull roar. As the road stretches out in front of her, only then does she breathe easy.

THE independent drama "Come Early Morning," which opens Friday, explores the life of a thirtysomething single woman at the crossroads of her life. The film's writer-director, Joey Lauren Adams, and its star, Ashley Judd -- both 38 -- were also at their own turning points when the project entered their lives. Adams, who hails from Little Rock, Ark., where "Come Early Morning" is set, started writing the script several years ago.

"Come Early Morning," the feature writing and directing debut of actress Joey Lauren Adams, falls prey to bits of psychoanalytic shorthand and narrative predictability, but it offers the rare, meaty role for an actress in her late 30s. Ashley Judd plays Southerner Lucy Fowler, a woman grappling with her fear of intimacy and some unwieldy emotional baggage, as short on self-esteem as she is long on drunken one-night stands.

"Come Early Morning," the feature writing and directing debut of actress Joey Lauren Adams, falls prey to bits of psychoanalytic shorthand and narrative predictability, but it offers the rare, meaty role for an actress in her late 30s. Ashley Judd plays Southerner Lucy Fowler, a woman grappling with her fear of intimacy and some unwieldy emotional baggage, as short on self-esteem as she is long on drunken one-night stands.

Movies "The Bone Collector," a suspense thriller, stars Denzel Washington as a forensics detective paralyzed from a gunshot wound and Angelina Jolie as a street-smart rookie cop who team up to track down a brutal serial killer. Opening in general release on Friday.

We see the boots first, then the leather cigarette case, the silver lighter -- all very worn, very male -- in the seedy motel room where sounds of sex, raw and desperate, fill the air. But appearances are rarely what they seem in "Trucker." It will be the woman who shrugs off the night; the boots and the rest are hers too. Lean and sinewy, she heads for an 18-wheeler in the parking lot out front, slides behind the wheel and kicks the engine into a dull roar. As the road stretches out in front of her, only then does she breathe easy.

Actors go behind the camera as directors, but the results are mostly cold and off-putting in "On the Edge" (8 p.m. Showtime), a made-for-cable trilogy featuring three short films set in the future. Helen Mirren helms "Happy Birthday," the bizarre, would-be comical tale of a resourceful entomology student (Sydney Tamiia Poitier) bounced from school just days before graduation. John Goodman, David Hyde Pierce, Beverly D'Angelo, Christopher Lloyd and Caroline Rhea appear in cameos.

James Toback's "Harvard Man" is a fast and clever con-gone-wrong comedy that reflects the writer-director's characteristic blend of the intellectual and the criminal. But it lacks anyone to care about--even the repellent characters are less than fascinating--and the result is a crisply made movie that is no more than mildly amusing. Adrian Grenier's Alan is a Harvard philosophy major and a point guard on the basketball team.

"THE Break Up," which arrives in theaters June 2 and is directed by Peyton Reed ("Bring It On," "Down With Love") from a script by Jeremy Garelick and Jay Lavender, finds Jennifer Aniston as art dealer Brooke severing romantic ties with her boyfriend, Gary (Vince Vaughn), who works as a host on bus tours of Chicago. The hitch, and naturally there had to be one, is that neither one of them is willing to move out of the condo they share.

THE independent drama "Come Early Morning," which opens Friday, explores the life of a thirtysomething single woman at the crossroads of her life. The film's writer-director, Joey Lauren Adams, and its star, Ashley Judd -- both 38 -- were also at their own turning points when the project entered their lives. Adams, who hails from Little Rock, Ark., where "Come Early Morning" is set, started writing the script several years ago.

As a teenager, Joey Lauren Adams would park her car in front of the North Little Rock home where Oscar winner Mary Steenburgen grew up, wondering whether fame could come to her too. "I would sit there with the motor running and think, 'She did it, I can do it,' " Adams said. "But then I would think, 'What are the chances for two girls from North Little Rock?' " Pretty good.

Movies "The Bone Collector," a suspense thriller, stars Denzel Washington as a forensics detective paralyzed from a gunshot wound and Angelina Jolie as a street-smart rookie cop who team up to track down a brutal serial killer. Opening in general release on Friday.

The Scene: Monday's premiere of PolyGram's "Return to Paradise" at the Village theater. The "conscience thriller" (will two friends submit to imprisonment in Malaysia to save a third from hanging?) was compared to "Midnight Express," "A Tale of Two Cities" and a Men's Journal top 10 bummer vacations issue.

Movies Christopher Guest's comedy "Best in Show" focuses on several eccentric dog owners gearing up for the canine showdown of their lives--the prestigious Mayflower Kennel Club Dog Show. Michael Hitchcock and Parker Posey head an ensemble cast. Opens exclusively at the Sunset 5 in West Hollywood and the Loews Broadway in Santa Monica on Friday.