Maybe I’ll never get over Once. In 2007, Irish writer/director John Carney captured the world’s attention with a low-frills romance about a bearded busker (Glen Hansard) who finds a musical soulmate in a sheepish single mom (Markéta Irglová). It would have been enough that they won an Academy Award for their song “Falling Slowly” or that their onscreen chemistry pushed the low-budget film to a massive box office success, but it also inspired a real-life romance between its stars, a band from that union, and a Broadway musical based on the film that started it all. With such extraordinary success, maybe it’s unfair for me to hope Carney will recapture lightning in a bottle anytime he brings together Irish folk playing music and falling in love.
On the surface, his latest film, Flora and Son, has similarities to his biggest hit: a Dublin setting, a single mom (Bad Sisters‘ Eve Hewson) with a thirst to find a better life through music, a handsome guitar player (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) who falls for her through artistic collaboration, and a collection of sentimental songs along the way. But to compare it to Once means Flora and Son can only suffer, coming off less as a feel-good love story and more like a convoluted advertisement for Apple products.
What’s Flora and Son about?
Credit: Apple TV+
From Once and Begin Again, to Sing Street and now Flora and Son, Carney’s comfort zone is love stories where the heroes come together through music. For Flora (Hewson), music has always been a way to her heart — or into her pants. She’s introduced while dancing at a nightclub, in search of a one-night stand. 14 years before, she met Ian (Sing Street‘s Jack Reynor) when he was opening for Snow Patrol, as he’s quick to remind anyone who’ll listen. Their son, Max (Orén Kinlan), is now a teen, and the thrill of dating the wannabe rockstar is long gone. They’ve since separated, which does nothing to help curb Max’s vocal disdain for her and their low-income housing.
In a plea to make amends after a curse-laden row, Flora gives Max a second-hand guitar, which he rebuffs with a sneer. He’s not into acoustic music. So, Flora decides maybe it’s time to take matters into her own hands, leading her to online lessons with a hunky Los Angeles musician named Jeff (Gordon-Levitt). Naturally, over the course of learning to play guitar, Flora falls for Jeff. But Flora and Son isn’t just about this budding romance. It’s also about Flora using music to reconnect with her son, who is battling crushes and the impulse to shoplift. And it’s about how music becomes a tool for her to feel in control of her own destiny, as opposed to being forced to dance to everyone else’s whims.
The breadth of love in this romance is admirable. Regrettably, Carney can’t pull it all off. Every bit feels clumsily constructed, and some of it is outright unpleasant.
Flora and Son: Eve Hewson and Joseph Gordon-Levitt’s romance is not one to root for.
Credit: Apple TV+
Flora is the kind of character who equates having no filter with keeping it real. As such, she calls her son a “prick” to his face, harasses her ex by asking him about his new girlfriend’s blowjob prowess, and — upon her first virtual meeting with Jeff — requests he take his shirt off for her viewing pleasure. While such brusqueness might be set up as a first-act character flaw from which Flora will grow, it is instead presented as her unique charm, a no-bullshit approach that makes her a prodigy at songwriting. But Jeff is just as annoying, as on their second meeting he makes it a point to criticize her taste in music, declaring he will “de-brainwash” her from “childish jingles” like James Blunt’s “You’re Beautiful.” If there’s a pot for every lid, perhaps there is an ass for every asshole.
Getting ‘the ick’ can be surprisingly helpful
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