Flora and Son Review
Azrael Tay reviews Apple TV’s latest rom-com production Flora and Son after a preview screening at Leeds’ Everyman.
After a brief stint in television with Prime Video’s Modern Love, Director John Carney returns to making movies. Albeit another project for a streaming giant – Apple TV – Flora and Son is yet another humble drama that plays within Carney’s comfort zone as a filmmaker.
In Flora and Son, we follow single mother Flora (Eve Hewson) and her dysfunctional love-hate relationship with her son Max (Orén Kinlan). One day, she fishes a broken guitar out of the rubbish and discovers American instructor Jeff (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) online. Through her newfound passion for music, Flora strives to reach out to her son.
Carney is no stranger to lovers of music films. Ever since the release of his 2007 hit Once, he has slowly constructed a career of feel-good dramas. Carney’s focus is centred around romance, music-making and how the two elements mesh to become inseparably linked. 2013’s Begin Again took that idea and observed it through the lens of the pop-production scene in New York City; Carney returned to his Dublin roots for 2016’s Sing Street, born out of a love of 80s new wave and MTV, infused with an authentic Irish teenage charm that won the hearts of moviegoers worldwide. It proves difficult, then, to not be at least a little disappointed that Flora and Son fails to live-up to such a string of beloved hits.
Saying Flora and Son resides within Carney’s comfort zone of storytelling does not mean it tries nothing new. The romance is present and blossoming. This time, between Hewson’s Dubliner Flora and Gordon-Levitt’s L.A.-based Jeff in what’s surely a screenwriting flourish inspired by the pandemic. Truthfully, the very nature of a long-distance relationship is as alienating on film as it is in real life and holds no candle to a more intimate face-to-face interaction, especially as a means of expression on screen for the audience to relate to. Carney wisely does away with this problem, allowing the digital barrier to dissipate away once the two characters start to play music and bond. It is a use of film language that proves simple yet extremely effective when experienced for the first time. In these moments, you truly feel Carney taking the reins and once again making movie magic.
Across the board, Flora and Son features some fine performers doing good work. Chief among them is Eve Hewson, who proves more than just “Bono Nepo Baby” in a multifaceted performance. Look no further than a standout, touching scene where Flora discovers Jodi Mitchell and Both Sides Now (the use of which feels almost like cheating, at least in carving a path to this reviewer’s heart). Orén Kinlan effortlessly captures Irish teenage angst, sometimes to an over-the-top, parodying degree, while Sing Street alumnus Jack Reynor reunites with Carney as Max’s father. Gordon-Levitt is obviously capable of being a very charismatic presence, but it is a shame that the chemistry between him and Hewson sings less sweetly than Carney’s other romantic leads. The romance never feels like something palpable beyond the strength of the songwriting or even the occasional flirtatious jab.
Eve Hewson proves more than just “Bono Nepo Baby”
Where the film stumbles most, though, is in the titular relationship between Flora and Max. This time, the romance is side-lined in favour of Flora and son, and music is once again the thread that binds the divide between them. Seeing Flora and Max create their own brand of music does not feel like the most organic character growth within the context of the film – although it’s used in an often hilarious and humorous fashion. Although you can respect the sentiment that Carney has for these characters and for Dublin itself, his characters here make decisions abruptly. Sometimes drama feels made for drama’s sake, and Flora and Son ultimately struggles to earn the full effect of its feel-good pay-off by its end.
Flora and Son is streaming on Apple TV+ from 29 September.
