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No Looking Back

1998, Movie, R, 96 mins

No Looking Back: Review

NO LOOKING BACK
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Working-class Queens is the setting for this low-key drama about lower middle-class strivers and their frustration with their boring lives. If only it weren't so, well, boring. No-account Charlie (Ed Burns) blows into town and parks his sorry self at his mom's, where he's warned that he can stay as long as he doesn't get into any trouble, the way he did last time. That was when he broke the heart of high-school sweetie Claudia (Lauren Holly); she had an abortion and he headed for the hills, leaving her to cope with the emotional and physical fallout. This time around, he starts up right where he left off, playing on Claudia's vague dissatisfaction with a life that revolves around working at the same old diner and hanging out at the same old bars with the same old friends, generally doing his damnedest to seduce her away from old buddy Michael (Jon Bon Jovi), a steady, salt of the earth type who just wants to marry Claudia, have children and provide for his family. Once again, former spandex-and-big-hair rocker Jon Bon Jovi proves that he actually can act: He may not have a lot of range, but he can play a nice guy and make that seem like a good thing to be, which is no mean feat. Holly also does solid work, suppressing the ditsiness that seem to come naturally to her and replacing it with a very convincing sense of quiet subjugation, even when Claudia is called upon to do ridiculous, unconvincing, just plain stupid things. The weak arm of the romantic triangle is Burns: His Charlie is a jerk through and through, utterly lacking the dangerous charm that might make an otherwise sensible girl think about giving him a second chance to mess her up. His shallow, irritating performance skews the dynamic between the characters and makes you lose patience with Claudia long before she gets her act together. leave a comment --Maitland McDonagh
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