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Sep 28, 201238The biggest problem, then, is the characters who populate the film. For the most part, they're one-dimensional caricatures.
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50A movie whose main virtue was its honesty ultimately lands in a place that feels canned and unsatisfying. But on the way there, Backwards isn't so bad.
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38The neatness of the plotting becomes almost comical after a while. Construction is one thing; contrivance is another.
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50Backwards - its title referring to the wisdom that life is lived forward but understood backward - has no forward propulsion.
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50Director Ben Hickernell soft-pedals the material into a blandly feel-good dramedy. As Abigail's spirited young trainees, Alexandra Metz and Meredith Apfelbaum give Backwards their all, but can't row their way clear of its clichés.
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40As her boss and boyfriend, an impressively good-natured James Van Der Beek adds a professional sheen to what otherwise feels like a vanity affair.
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70It's simple stuff, but it works.
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40Pairing a dull romance with an even duller sport (at least as represented here), this cliché-ridden vanity project is more suited to the ABC Family channel than to the inside of a movie theater.
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75Thomas, credited as writer, producer, and executive producer, is the obvious auteur, orchestrating a star vehicle she lacks the screen presence to anchor.
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50Passably pleasant but thoroughly predictable.
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Sep 19, 201240Subplots are introduced only to be resolved within minutes, characters jettisoned at a moment's notice. Those who can't do, teach; those who settle apparently end up pretty happy.
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40The lesson here, apparently, is that driven women just need to lighten up and stop being selfish - a message that really does feel backward.
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Sep 18, 201225Streamlines its busy set of plots and subplots into a 90-minute sprint, throughout which characters often confront and overcome their obstacles within the same scene.