‘Flora And Son’ Review – Latest John Carney Gem Cements His Subgenre Of Life-Affirming Music Dramas

Writer/director John Carney is truly gifted at weaving his love of music into film with a personal and sentimental flair. Past projects like Once, Sing Street, and Begin Again all find ways to show just how deeply music is able to affect the human experience. These stories are always overflowing with heart but without being too cloying. It is a style that Carney has made all his own. His new film, Flora and Son, is not much different–again focusing on characters who discover that music has the ability to teach them and enhance their lives and relationships if they are just willing to listen.

Flora (Eve Hewson) is a young single mother living in Dublin, Ireland. Her teenage son, Max (Orén Kinlan), is rebellious and also struggling to relate to his peers. He has already been in trouble with the law for stealing several times, and Flora is at her wits’ end with figuring out how to make a connection with him. Her ex, Ian (Jack Reynor), isn’t much help, watching Max every other week but ultimately, is too self-absorbed to even attempt a real conversation with his son. 

Flora finds a beat-up acoustic guitar discarded in a dumpster on the way home from work and decides to fix it up for Max since he has an interest in music. Unfortunately, Max quickly dismisses the gift, but Flora decides that she wants to learn how to play. She begins online lessons with Jeff (Joseph Gordon-Levitt), who lives across the Atlantic in Los Angeles, California. The two begin forming a friendship, causing Flora to listen to not only music, but all aspects of her life differently.

In her first leading role in a film, Eve Hewson plays the brash, sharp, and sometimes vulgar Flora effortlessly. Flora is a character that feels lived in, and it is obvious Hewson knows her mannerisms and facial expressions intimately. Hewson seems attuned to the core essence of her. Most audiences would consider Flora to be messy, but this is part of her charm. She wants and desires fiercely–maybe too much for some people. It drives her to bounce around in life, trying everything she can to get the most out of a life that isn’t exactly how she imagined it would be when she was younger. This can sometimes be off-putting to people, especially because she is a woman.

The film opens with Flora dancing and drinking at a club, talking at strangers, and looking to make some sort of connection. We get the impression that she may be in a sort of arrested development after having Max so young. Her ex, Ian, is also in this state, chasing his glory days when he was in a semi-successful band that once opened for Snow Patrol. Flora mentions in a conversation with Jeff that she wanted to be special and different somehow, and this is the reason why she gravitated towards Ian. He was a musician in close proximity to a more famous band, and having Max was another way she could be special. 

Carney mentioned at the film’s world premiere at Sundance that Flora and Son was a dedication to mothers (Sing Street was dedicated to brothers everywhere). Flora is our main protagonist, and we are feeling what she feels and seeing what she sees. There aren’t many scenes in which Flora is alone where we’re able to catch glimpses of her with her guard down, but when she is alone on screen, it is a striking difference in character. There are times when she is just listening to music, but other times she begins to relax into comfortable silence and thought. Her eyes are always watching others, looking for reactions or assessing them altogether. 

Joseph Gordon-Levitt as Jeff is a welcome calming and warm presence to the story. The guitar lessons take place over Zoom calls, but this is actually done better than a lot of films. Jeff’s sunny, bright L.A. home on screen is a stark contrast to Flora’s dimly lit, more drab apartment. His warm smile and disposition emanate through the screen, and when the lessons progress and they begin playing music, the camera will rotate around Flora and back again to reveal Jeff present in Ireland with her. It is a nice touch, so we aren’t stuck staring at the small laptop with every lesson. This also creates a lovely intimacy within these scenes. A lesson that takes place on Flora’s rooftop is a standout. 

As Flora and Jeff’s friendship blossoms, Flora begins to pay more attention to how Max is navigating the world. She is hilariously out of touch with her suggestions to Max of how he can get his crush’s attention, but it makes for a feel-good moment between the two of them. She notices how much music does for Max. She has recently discovered via guitar lessons that she has a knack for songwriting. She is especially good with composition and melodies and has a natural ear for it. This allows her to find a way into a connection with Max that she didn’t have before. 

Shot compositions seem to change as Flora gradually starts her journey of self-growth. There are many shots with Jeff that are warm while also being soft, but even when he is not present, she becomes more sharply defined visually. Even with the dull, gray concrete of Dublin, there is plenty of beauty that seeps into the film. In a scene with a party at Flora’s apartment, people are laughing and dancing to the song that Max has composed and written with a little help from her. Flora is beaming the entire time, and the once-darkened apartment is alive and bright; she glows with confidence and contentment. 

It feels like John Carney is on a mission to make sure everyone knows how incredible music is and how much of an impact it can make on one’s life. It is central to Flora’s growth and allows her to come to terms with what her life has shaped into. This allows her to finally become more of the kind of person she wants to be. It gives her that missing piece of feeling special in some way. She gains more confidence and becomes more in touch with a part of herself she has not explored yet while also being more comfortable with being vulnerable with others. She begins to really listen to the lyrics of songs and thus, the people around her. All of this ripples out into the people closest to her and changes their lives for the better as well. 

The ending of the film is slightly clunky but does make sense for Flora’s character arc. It is still sweet nonetheless, but some things feel a little less resolved than others. The pacing during the last ten to fifteen minutes of the story can be a little jarring with its slight loss of momentum. Things are left more open-ended, but in a more positive way where audiences can safely assume how things will go for these characters. 

In a world with an overabundance of crime drama, superheroes, reboots, and remakes for entertainment, Flora and Son is a nice change of pace. It is full of hope and heart with a few laughs along the way. The songs composed for the film range from sweet, acoustic melodies reminiscent of Carney’s earlier film, Once, to uptempo numbers infused with hip-hop and are sure to please most crowds. Carney shows us a female protagonist who is messy and flawed but who is also open to learning and growing. Flora and Son’s story of human connection through music is a brief look into a moment in time for all of its characters and is very moving in its simplicity.

Flora and Son is currently playing in select theaters and is available to stream on AppleTV+. 

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=beNTTHnMIy8]