Capsule Review: Flora and Son (2023)

John Carney’s long-awaited follow-up to 2016’s Sing Street sees the writer-director stick to the formula that he knows best: a crowd-pleasing mix of feel-good character-driven dramedy and music. The kind where music brings people together, to be exact. So, watching his latest movie, Flora and Son is equivalent to slipping into the comfort zone because it’s all familiar stuff here.

But first, the story. The title in question refers to Flora (Eve Hewson), a young single mother who lives in Dublin with her rebellious 14-year-son, Max (Orén Kinlan) often gets himself into trouble for committing petty theft. When he’s not stealing, he will spend his free time remixing songs and doing his own rapping. Flora and her bassist ex-husband, Ian (Jack Reynor) have already separated but he still takes care of their son.

When Flora tries to gift her son a used guitar, he’s not interested at all. Rather than tossing the guitar away (not that she never attempts anyway), she decides to make good use of it. This is especially true after she stumbled upon an episode of American Idol, which prompted her to take up a guitar lesson. After searching everywhere on the internet, she finally settles for a Los Angeles-based YouTube music teacher named Jeff (Joseph Gordon-Levitt).

From there, she started learning online guitar lessons via Zoom and if you are familiar with Carney’s films in the past, you know where is this going. Flora finds her music teacher attractive and falls for him. They will spend time flirting with each other but the long-distance relationship isn’t the only thing that drives the movie.

Carney’s screenplay also uses Flora’s guitar lessons as a way to reconnect with her troubled son. This, in turn, resulted in one of the movie’s most delightful moments — Flora and Max are having a good time making music together with her singing and her son remixing with an app from his MacBook.

Eve Hewson may portray a somewhat unlikable protagonist, who loves to swear a lot as much as her son does. But it’s hard not to root for Flora, especially her subsequent self-discovery and bonding with her son through the power of music. Her lively personality helps too and this is undoubtedly Hewson’s best performance I’ve seen so far.

The mother-son chemistry between her and Orén Kinlan’s Max is among the main reasons that made the movie compulsively watchable. She also shares a wonderful on-screen pairing with Joseph Gordon-Levitt, who brings effortless charm to his character, Jeff. Then, there’s Jack Reynor in his solid supporting turn as Flora’s inept ex-husband, Ian.

Flora and Son culminates in the movie’s most memorable set piece and no prizes for guessing here, as we see Flora and company belting out the infectious “High Life” on stage.

As much as I enjoy the movie, it’s not without its share of flaws. For instance, Carney chose to gloss over Max’s troublemaking behaviour that sees him serving time for his crime. The resolution between Flora and Jeff is rushed while Carney’s penchant for limiting himself with his shooting style, especially whenever we see Flora imagine herself with Jeff sharing the same space during their Zoom lessons looks repetitive.

While Flora and Son doesn’t reach the creative heights set in the still-unsurpassed Once and of course, the Mark Ruffalo and Keira Knightley-starred Begin Again, John Carney’s latest movie remains a delight worth checking out.

Flora and Son is currently streaming on Apple TV+.