‘Flora and Son’ Review: The Feel-Good Movie of the Year
“No, it’s never just a song”, says Joseph Gordon-Levitt‘s Jeff when Flora (Eve Hewson) dismisses his deep thoughtful explanation of a piece of music they were discussing. It’s with that simple and direct line, but also charged with years of resentment on writer-director’s John Carney‘s behalf, that I realized Flora and Son was something truly special. By that point, the characters had already sucked me into the story, and it only got better from there. That line spoke directly to all the times I felt out of place having a conversation in which I was trying to defend a movie I love to people who didn’t care enough to listen to my arguments or didn’t want to waste any time thinking about it. That feeling is definitely one of the reasons why I got into this space in the first place.
The film, which opens in select theaters on September 22 before dropping on Apple TV Plus on September 29, marks Carney’s return to features since 2016’s indie darling Sing Street. Much like that one, Flora and Son is another remarkable entry in the feel-good genre that taps into the significance of music as a bridge between mother and son. The story begins when Max (Orén Kinlan), a 14-year-old troublemaker, is given one final warning to avoid going to juvenile detention and her young mother Flora tries to find him a new hobby to keep him occupied. That’s when she picks up a guitar for him to practice, but after it doesn’t quite work, she decides to take it up herself — looking for online teachers to learn, she lands on the charismatic Jeff, a failed musician living in LA and teaching guitar online for $20.
As Flora gets more and more into music, she also discovers that her son is making his own, guitar-less stuff, which they start to bond over. At 90 minutes sharp, Flora and Son is this year’s CODA (coincidentally, or perhaps not, both movies feature Joni Mitchell’s Both Sides Now at heavily emotional points of the story), only instead of featuring a struggling deaf family, it focuses on a struggling young mother who is in a constant search of herself and is disappointed that society can’t quite give her what she’s looking for, even though she couldn’t really articulate what that is. She left school early, got pregnant and didn’t get an abortion because her inner voice advised her against it, not because of a deep conviction one way or the other. As it turns out, what she needed was something to channel her passions into — and that’s when music came along.
Eve Hewson as Flora and Joseph Gordon-Levitt as Jeff in John Carney’s “Flora and Son”. Photo courtesy of Apple TV Plus.
Carney’s great script would have fallen completely flat were it not for an extremely magnetic actress who was not only able to pull off the more poignant moments the character has to offer throughout the story but also the more complicated, layered scenes where she has to contradict with her body and facial language what her mouth is saying. He found the perfect partner in Bad Sisters star Eve Hewson, who once again delivers a knockout performance that is so different from her character in the Apple TV Plus series they hardly belong in the same sentence. Having watched that show last year made me appreciate Hewson’s work here even more. Flora and Son is one of those instances where a performer is able to elevate the material to extreme new heights, and that isn’t even counting the work of the ever-flawless Joseph Gordon-Levitt, who perfectly understood the assignment. He is memorable, but the fact that he’s the most recognizable face for general audiences in the cast doesn’t mean he will outshine anyone on the screen. It’s one of the reasons why he’s one of my favorite actors to watch — he always delivers on what is asked of him, and never steps out of line.
The story of Flora and Son may not be groundbreaking, but the film itself argues that it doesn’t have to be. Similar to how La La Land operated, Joseph Gordon-Levitt’s character makes compelling arguments against commercial hits like James Blunt’s You’re Beautiful by bringing up classic records by Hoagy Carmichael, among others — yet these discussions can be easily adaptable to take down modern-day commercial films in favor of more intimate stories that touch our hearts. And much like La La Land, the film doesn’t try to pretend like it’s one of those “superior” forms of storytelling; rather, it lets the audience decide for themselves which format they prefer. It’s quite surprising how those two films are similar to each other in terms of the story breakdown, yet completely different in execution.
(L-R) Eve Hewson as Flora and Orén Kinlan as Max in John Carney’s “Flora and Son”. Photo courtesy of Apple TV Plus.
The heart of the film, though, lies in the relationship between mother and son. Flora and Max cannot wait to not see each other every day, yet they have a very special bond that is based on a 14-year relationship more complicated than what one can put into words. On the inside, they both probably blame each other for their own failures in life, yet they are also the best thing that has happened to each other. Both of them may like to think that Max might be better off with his dad (Sing Street returning actor Jack Reynor), Flora’s ex-husband and also an aspiring musician who didn’t really make it either, despite what he may claim — however, as a scene towards the middle of the film clearly states, Max isn’t that interested in his father’s company. And his father isn’t that interested in having a relationship with his son, and would rather have him as a name tattooed on his neck or someone to feel good about himself than an actual human being with whom to share life experiences.
Flora and Son opens in theaters on September 22, and will stream on Apple TV Plus on September 29.
Miguel Fernández is a Spanish student that has movies as his second passion in life. His favorite movie of all time is The Lord of the Rings, but he is also a huge Star Wars fan. However, fantasy movies are not his only cup of tea, as authors like Scorsese, Fincher, Kubrick or Hitchcock have been an obsession for him since he started to understand the language of filmmaking. He is that guy who will watch a black and white movie, just because it is in black and white.
