A minor moody character study, Ed Burns’ third feature, No Looking Back , represented an unexciting, misguided sidestep.
Though evocative of dead-end small-town life, this working-class drama about a waitress (Lauren Holly, Burns’ girlfriend at the time), torn between her current lover (Jon Bon Jovi) and her old sweetheart (Ed Burns) who comes back, is devoid of the complexity or depth to generate any interest in its familiar theme.
As if to compensate for his slender yarn, Burns populates the film with a vibrant soundtrack, but songs from Sheryl Crow and Bruce Springteen dwarf the this femme-drive tale even more. This time around, critics gunning for Burns found plenty of ammunition in a simplistically drab woman’s picture about a waitress going through a mid-life crisis.
