The first time we see Flora (Eve Hewson), she’s uncaringly dancing the night away in a nightclub. The scene ends with Flora sleeping with a stranger. Despite her disappointment of ending the night with meaningless sex, she casually tells the guy that she has a son. He then leaves without saying another word.
Flora might be brash, but she’s never ashamed to say that she’s a mother. At the young age of 17, Flora is already a mother to Max (Orén Kinlan). Like her one-night stand, her husband, Ian (Jack Reynor), left her too. They’re still co-parenting, but he stays with her most of the time.
Flora is now 31 years old, and those 14 years of raising her son, mostly alone, really pushed her to be better. It's not easy raising a kid like Max. For one, he’s got a boatload of criminal cases. The police eventually let him go, but it is clear that his desire to become a rapper leads to numerous run-ins with the law.
One day, Flora saved a broken guitar from a dump truck. She asked for it to be fixed so she could give it to Max. However, Max stoutly declined it. So Flora decided to learn it instead. She then meets Jeff (Joseph Gordon-Levitt), a guitar tutor who will change the way she views her life.
If Sing Street by John Carney is for brothers everywhere, Flora and Son is for mothers everywhere. And if Sing Street is about dealing with sadness, Flora and Son is learning to deal with expectation and failure. Although largely different in story and purpose, the thing that holds them together is the same. It’s music.
Director John Carney believes in the power of music. He believes in it so much that almost all of his films are about struggling artists. From Once to Flora and Son, all of his characters navigate a complicated life centered around making music. But the music is more than an objective; it is a way for Carney to uncomplicate the story for everyone watching. Like in Flora and Son, Flora’s breakthrough in connecting with Max comes in the form of songwriting. The song they created is raw and cheap, but it’s the relationship that grows that leaves an everlasting mark. As Jeff said in the movie, it’s all about the brushstroke. We can tell the same story over and over again, but it only becomes a moving piece if we pour our hearts into every beat of the drum or strum of the guitar. It's the heart that matters.
Surely there's a beating heart in this film, but it comes mostly from Flora and Jeff and not with Max. Some very memorable scenes are their discussion (and unsolicited slander) on James Blunt’s You’re Beautiful and the first time we hear Meet in the Middle. Their relationship is basically the soul of this film. Although Joseph Gordon Levitt can definitely show a little bit of emotion, Eve Hewson compensates by feeling it all in with such a heartfelt performance.
There are a lot of things going on in this film, other than the romance. The interweaving conflicts between Ian, Flora, and Max are interesting at first, but they're not deep enough to make us care. Hence, it never really earns its heartwarming last song in the end. Once’s Falling Slowly is encapsulate everything we know about the intricateness of love. Whereas Begin Again’s Lost Stars is all about the uncertainty felt by Dave and Greta on their relationship. Putting all these masterpiece vis à vis Flora and Son’s High Life and we can simply tell that it is not as strong emotionally as Carney’s other finales.
Flora And Son is currently streaming on Apple TV Plus.
