Critic Reviews

Thomas, credited as writer, producer, and executive producer, is the obvious auteur, orchestrating a star vehicle she lacks the screen presence to anchor.

It's simple stuff, but it works.

Passably pleasant but thoroughly predictable.

Director 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.

Backwards - its title referring to the wisdom that life is lived forward but understood backward - has no forward propulsion.

A 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.

The lesson here, apparently, is that driven women just need to lighten up and stop being selfish - a message that really does feel backward.

Subplots 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.

Pairing 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.

As her boss and boyfriend, an impressively good-natured James Van Der Beek adds a professional sheen to what otherwise feels like a vanity affair.