From Jeff Nelson

John Carney has a unique talent of crafting cinema that touches the viewer visually, narratively, and musically, from Once to Sing Street. He’s making a return to the silver screen with Flora and Son, which made quite the impression at its 2023 Sundance Film Festival premiere. The final product isn’t the director’s masterpiece, but it’s a worthwhile story of a fractured family growing together.

Flora (Eve Hewson) is a single mother who is constantly at war with her troubled son, Max (Orén Kinlan), and her ex-husband, Ian (Jack Reynor). She finds an acoustic guitar in a dumpster, which gives her the idea to encourage Max’s creative side by inspiring him to develop a healthy hobby. However, Flora soon discovers her own passion in music, which could be the key to the family’s future together.

Carney paints all of his characters with an imperfect brush that reveals both their insecurities and their aspirations. They all carry a certain resilience that hardened them through their heartache. Flora’s harshness, Max’s teen angst, and Ian’s defensiveness all have a role to play, although Flora’s world gradually opens up when she decides to sign up for online guitar lessons from a failed musician from Los Angeles named Jeff (Joseph Gordon-Levitt), who buries his pain and regret behind a calm exterior. Each character is tangible, although the dynamics amongst them lack depth.

From a glance, Flora wants to learn how to play the guitar to impress her son and earn Ian’s attention. However, her connection to music runs much deeper than that, consequently exposing how it touches every person that surrounds her. Flora’s inevitable chemistry with Jeff is sweet and believable, although it could use more time to breathe. Meanwhile, the mother-son story at Flora and Son’s core is full of sincerity, but it similarly feels a tad underbaked.

Audiences familiar with Carney’s prior works know to expect a marvelous soundtrack to capitalize on the emotions running rampant on the screen. Flora and Son isn’t his best movie soundtrack, but it’s still a delightful listen, crossing sounds from the acoustic guitar to electronic beats generated in GarageBand. 

Hewson’s lead performance as Flora elevates the material, landing comedic and dramatic beats nicely. Gordon-Levitt is mostly seen from the vantage of a computer screen, but his charisma radiates from it, achieving organic chemistry with Hewson that begs for further exploration.

Flora and Son plays a sincere and vulnerable melody that we’ve come to expect from Carney. It’s familiar, but he strikes such a delicate balance between drama and comedy with a winsome musicality that especially shines in the small, understated moments. It’s a reminder of Carney’s talent and his ability to craft something that leads with its heart.

Rating: 3.5/5

Flora and Son hits theaters on September 22nd, 2023 and streams on Apple TV+ on September 29th, 2023.

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