Relationship is the great teacher of the heart. We learn who we are and what we can become in our intimacies with others. They mirror back to us both the best within us and our most grievous flaws. In his third feature film, writer and director Edward Burns explores the ways relationships can serve as spurs to personal growth and transformation.
After three years out West, Charlie (Edward Burns) returns to his birthplace, a working class East Coast seaside town. He wants to reconnect with Claudia (Lauren Holly), the lover he abandoned years ago after leaving her pregnant and about to have an abortion. She works as a waitress and regularly visits her depressed mother (Blythe Danner) and her sister (Connie Britton). The only trouble with Charlie's plan is that Claudia is living with and almost engaged to Michael (Jon Bon Jovi), his best friend since grade school.
Lauren Holly gives the most nuanced performance of her career as a spirited woman who struggles to find a way into a future not defined by someone else. Similar in spirit to Burns's other films, No Looking Back makes it clear that the best way to kill a relationship is to insist on having things your way. Fluid, funny, and touching, this psychodrama goes straight to the heart.
