NO LOOKING BACK
Reviewed by Harvey Karten, Ph.D. Gramercy Pictures Director: Edward Burns Writer: Edward Burns Cast:Edward Burns, Lauren Holly, Connie Britton, Blythe Danner, Jon Bon Jovi
There comes a time in the life a many a successful comedy writer that he pursues greater depth than a feathery play or film can expose, however competent the wit. With Neil Simon, who began his career with the lighter-than-air and very funny "Come Blow Your Horn" the moment came with the less fortunate "God's Favorite." Woody Allen, whose talent with words allowed him to pen even a comedy which is completely sung hit his serious stride with "Interiors," equally foiled at the box office. Edward Burns got the itch to write, direct, and act in a more somber work at an earlier age, perhaps stung that his abundantly funny "The Brothers McMullen" and "She's the One"--the former premiering at the 1995 Sundance Festival while the latter was released a year later by Fox Searchlight Pictures--was dismissed by some critics as mere sitcom. What emerges, "No Looking Back," is indeed a more poignant, less slap-happy look at life among the working classes in one of Queens, New York's more remote locations. Filmed in Rockaway Beach with a blue patina, "No Looking Back" is not without humor, but its sober tone matches the rainy weather which more often than not afflicts the vicinity. Starring Lauren Holly as Claudia, Jon Bon Jovi as her live-in boyfriend Michael, and the writer-director in the role of former beau Charlie, the movie traces a few days in the lives of three young people at about the age of thirty who are already in the throes of a mid-life crisis.
Michael and Claudia seem content enough sharing a ramshackle but decently furnished house overlooking the beach, but something is missing. Michael is ready and eager to get married, but Claudia, despite the pressure of friends and family, is holding back. It's not that Michael is a bad guy: just the opposite, in fact. He has the typical outlook of people of his social class. He is ambitious enough, willing to work hard to support a wife and kids, but he has no vision. Claudia, who works as a waitress in a prosaic diner, harbors inchoate desires that stretch beyond the borders of Queens. We do not wonder that since the roguish Charlie deserted her when she needed him most and fled to California months after making Claudia pregnant, his return to Rockaway Beach at first seems to dismay Claudia as much as it does her current live-in. But Claudia, who had given up her adolescent dreams at the age of thirty now sees new hope for reviving her fantasies. Looking back, she warms to the attentions of the cur.
Well acted by all parties, who adopt working class mannerisms as though these were second nature, Burns's picture has a way of infusing into the drama the entire culture of the community. Little things like a young diner's leaving a dollar tip inside the leftover food in his dish and calling the waitress "sweetheart," a gas pump jockey's brown-bagging his lunch at the station as though to announce that he had long ago given up aspiration, Charlie's own mother's outward hostility to the boy whom she considers a layabout whose presence could stir up the neighborhood once again. Men and women in equal numbers lay back scotches at the crowded bar; card games become the scene of macho posturing; unrepressed women freely announce their sexual wishes to friends and potential partners. Burns slips in some telling dialogue, single utterances being enough to stir up memories and ignite old passions. "I told you you'd be cleaning his dirty underwear, didn't I?" cajoles Charlie as he watches his former flame fulfilling his predictions.
This is the sort of movie that makes good, upright, family values people wonder whether they perhaps should become more assertive, and most of all, more carefree and even indolent. Many a well-groomed, neatly dressed and awfully proper young man has been dismayed to find the object of his affections turn away and dart into the arms of a rascal, shedding light on the real consequences of family values. "No Looking Back"--which features small but effective roles from Blythe Danner as Claudia's forlorn but understanding mom and Connie Britton as her cynical sister Kelly--is obligatory viewing for fans of the talented Edward Burns, who began his film career with a movie that paid back investors 400-fold and who has now moved into the generally uncharted waters of Rockaway Beach with a trenchant piece about hidden yearnings. Rated R. Running time: 96 minutes. (C) Harvey Karten 1998
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