No Looking Back

Updated June 26, 2020 | Infoplease Staff

Burns shows his serious side in this somber tale about a woman forced to rethink her definition of love and what she wants from her small-town life. Claudia (Holly) is a waitress living in her humdrum blue-collar hometown with an adoring but dull boyfriend Mike (Bon Jovi), to whom she's “practically engaged.” When Claudia's cocky old flame (Burns) saunters back into town, it's clear she's still a sucker for his charms and his promise to get her out of this one-horse New York suburb. No Looking Back nearly stalls out at first, dragged down by one too many mood-shots of Claudia's work-a-day waitressing life and bleak (and oddly deserted) neighborhood streets. But once we meet Claudia's family – an absent father, an abandoned mom (Danner) and a lonely sister (Britton) – her conflict takes on depth and urgency. More impressive than Burns's venture into the dark terrain of heartbreak (he makes Claudia face the painful consequences of her decision), is the refreshingly feminist resolution he allows Claudia.