‘No Looking Back’ Strays as a Rogue Returns

When self-confident, charismatic Charlie gets off the bus in an unnamed burg and kick-starts the plot of “No Looking Back,” it’s momentarily reminiscent of the film version of William Inge’s “Picnic,” where a handsome stranger blows into town and causes all kinds of romantic complications. Except Charlie turns out to be no stranger and neither is Edward Burns, who plays him and wrote and directed this film, his third.

Burns’ debut, the appealing “The Brothers McMullen,” is a Sundance legend, winning the Grand Jury Prize and going on to be named the most profitable film of 1995 by Daily Variety. Burns followed that with the similar but completely unsatisfying “She’s the One,” so with his latest outing he’s tried to do something different.

One change is that “No Looking Back” is a serious drama that exists almost entirely without laughs. It’s also the first of Burns’ films to be told largely from a woman’s point of view. But attempting that in a film in which Burns was so much the key creative force turns out to be tricky in ways that might not have been anticipated.

One thing Burns hasn’t changed--and it’s his greatest area of strength--is the sense he has of how working-class Americans, specifically those living in the Northeast, speak to one another. But while “No Looking Back” (set in an unnamed seaside town and shot in Far Rockaway, N.Y.) rings true in terms of ambience and dialogue, it has not completely managed to come up with a story that feels as right as the setting.

The woman in question is Claudia (Lauren Holly), a waitress in a diner who heads straight for a beer and the TV after hours, especially if her cute but hard-working boyfriend Michael (Jon Bon Jovi) is putting in his usual overtime.

Claudia and Michael live together like a married couple, but no wedding date has been set. Before we can examine why, Charlie, once Michael’s best friend and Claudia’s lover, saunters off that bus and back into everyone’s lives.

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Despite his roguish charm and king-of-the-hill attitude, hardly anyone is happy to see Charlie return, and that includes his mother who tells him “you act like an adult or you’re out on your ass.” Michael calls him “a mutt” and Claudia, still smarting from the circumstances of Charlie leaving town, is not crazy about reconnecting either.

It turns out, to no one’s surprise either on or off screen, that Claudia is why Charlie came back after three years in (where else but?) California. No sooner does he take a job pumping gas at Bugsy’s but he’s trying to reenter her life, reminding her that he used to call her “Cloudia” because of her airy dreams, insinuating that she’s sold herself short by living with Michael, and finally proposing that she go with him the next time he leaves town.

It’s an interesting dilemma, or at least “No Looking Back” tries hard to make it interesting. Bon Jovi is completely creditable as a “where is it written you’ve got to be happy all the time?” kind of guy, and Holly, assisted by Blythe Danner’s capable supporting work as her abandoned mother, works very hard to get this character right.

Despite all this, it’s hard to watch “No Looking Back” without feeling that things are missing and out of kilter. Partly it’s that while Claudia rings true around the edges, at her core this character comes off as more a generic “woman at a crossroads” than a specific individual, a situation that the script’s tendency toward billboard-type speeches doesn’t help.

As for Burns, starring in his own film is both a strength and a weakness. He easily holds the screen with an ingratiating screen presence, as witness his being cast to support Tom Hanks in Steven Spielberg’s forthcoming “Saving Private Ryan,” and he certainly understands all the aspects of the character.

But while Burns doesn’t hesitate to show the duplicitous sides of Charlie, and though he’s given himself a potent rival by employing Bon Jovi, casting himself in his own piece throws the film out of balance. Even without trying, “No Looking Back” gives his character an unfair advantage. Should he win Claudia’s heart, it will seem too obvious a solution; should he not succeed, we will feel more misled than we should.

As to the more general question of whether audiences beguiled by “The Brothers McMullen” will have to resign themselves to being misled by a one-trick pony, that is still without a definitive answer.

* MPAA rating: R, for language. Times guidelines: frank dialogue.

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‘No Looking Back’

Lauren Holly: Claudia

Edward Burns: Charlie

Jon Bon Jovi: Michael

Blythe Danner: Claudia’s Mom

Connie Britton: Kelly

PolyGram Filmed Entertainment presents a Marlboro Road Gang/Good Machine/South Fork production, released by Gramercy Pictures. Director Edward Burns. Producers Ted Hope, Michael Nozik & Edward Burns. Executive producer Robert Redford. Screenplay Edward Burns. Cinematographer Frank Prinzi. Editor Susan Graef. Costumes Sara Jane Slotnik. Music Joe Delia. Production design Therese DePrez. Set decorators Diane Lederman. Running time: 1 hour, 36 minutes.

* In limited release around Southern California.