dansview Overall, a very worthwhile film. Exciting,,no. It was a dialogue-based character study or writer-driven movie with a good deal of realism.If you like to watch real people live their lives with a relevant soundtrack in the background and a problem, conflict, and resolution all wrapped up within a couple of hours, then you will enjoy this film.Ed Burns, a small town drifter returns to his hometown, consequently jars the lives of the people he left behind and his own, conflicts and reflection ensue, catharsis sets in, and resolution concludes.Lauren Holly gives an Oscar-worthy performance in this small film. From the beginning and throughout, we feel her angst, her joys, her fears as if they were our own. No small feat for any actor.It could have been much more effective however if burns had written in some scenes where characters would give some meaty speeches about the morality of their decisions and lifestyles. Clearly the Burns character was bordering on amoral, so other characters should have schooled him with some passionate sense of justice. This was implied several times, but never really made an impact.Of course the types of people who live in sleepy blue collar towns don't necessarily make a practice of giving impassioned morality speeches, but presumably someone in town was a churchgoer.

Bjorn (ODDBear) It's always refreshing to see movies that deal with ordinary people and their lives. Burns has made it his "thing" to create normal, fragile characters who live very ordinary lives and, in this film at least, are sad and disappointed over how mundane and uneventful their existence is. Burns taps into this genre quite well but here, unlike his excellent debut The Brothers McMullen, his characters aren't as interesting or well defined.Lauren Holly plays a waitress who seems to be bored out of her mind, living with blue collar mechanic Bon Jovi. Her old sweetheart (who completely broke her heart) Burns returns and promises her a better life if she will pack up and go with him.Holly gives an excellent performance in the lead role. She's the best written character as well, and you feel for her and root for her. Other characters aren't as well defined and are fairly one-dimensional and uninteresting, especially Burn's character. The film moves along very slowly and, aside from one scene involving Bon Jovi, avoids any real emotional outbursts. It's very subdued and could have used some form of life injected to it.Cast is mostly excellent. Holly is terrific, Burns good as usual but most unexpected; Bon Jovi is actually quite effective as Holly's unfortunate boyfriend.Praise goes also to the excellent music score. There's not one but three Springsteen songs and in my books that indicates some good musical taste.

young gun I cannot begin to explain just how REAL this film feels when you watch it. The characters seem to resemble people that all of us, at some stage or another, has met in our lives. How many people out there can say that they have never met a guy like Charlie or a big hearted guy like Mikey? Burns is proving himself as a writer and director, I hope he was proud of this piece. The script is believable and the scenery is exactly what most of us step out from our homes into! There is some great acting from Jon Bon Jovi, nice to see he's proving his critics wrong! This is a very moving and unforgettable movie, proving to me that mistakes make a man what he is.

George Parker "No Looking Back" spends almost all of it's 1.5 hour run time with a guy (Burns) trying to reclaim his girlfriend (Holly) after years away from the small town where they grew up together. Typical of Burns flicks this film is all conversation amongst working class people. The problem with the story is there is never any mention of a reason why she should want to go anywhere with him. No plan to ensure their mutual success and happiness save a brief mention of Texas. He has no goals. She has no goals. Her roomie/boyfriend (Bon Jovi) has no plans save the status quo. Apparently none of them care about goals and live as slaves of kismet or karma or something. There's no talk of anything such as..."Hey, what're you gonna do for a living?". Bottom line is this "dog" is shallow, simple minded drivel with some good actors caught up in a story/script which goes no where and has the ending to prove it.