Flora And Son Review: Sing Street's John Carney Returns With A New Music-Filled Dramedy [Sundance]

For viewers with an aversion to full-blown musicals, I recommend checking out the films of John Carney, an Irish filmmaker who makes small-scale, romantic movies in which his characters have an affinity for music. They sing, yes, but these aren't the types of films where every background actor participates in huge choreographed dances. He got his start with 2007's "Once," which won an Oscar for Best Original Song, and he followed it up with movies like 2013's "Begin Again" and 2016's sensational "Sing Street." His latest, "Flora and Son," is another crowd-pleasing addition to his oeuvre about how music has the power to form unexpected connections.

Eve Hewson plays Flora, a young single mother in Dublin who wakes up angry every day and takes it out on those around her. She had her son, Max (Oren Kinlan), when she was just 17 and feels like she hasn't had a chance to truly live her life, but Carney isn't willing to give her a pass and paint her as a martyr. When she complains to a longtime friend about her lot in life ("This can't be my story," she pleads), the friend basically tells her to grow up and own the decisions she's made. Oh, and about those decisions: Flora is a bit of a mess. She spends her days working as a nanny for wealthy mothers, dancing her nights away, and constantly bickering with Max, who's now 14 and has been in trouble with the law for half his life. She forgets Max's birthday, and the only present she gets for him the next day is an old guitar she dug out of a nearby dumpster. When the boy calls her out for it and rejects the gift, Flora decides she'll play it herself — largely to prove her doubting ex-musician ex-husband (Jack Reynor) wrong.

Hewson is up to the challenge here, ably slotting into the stable of complex female characters Carney has written over the years. She bounces between being funny, sweet, nasty, supportive, assertive, jealous, and more, showing an impressive range and hopefully attracting the attention of future casting directors who may not have otherwise considered her. Gordon-Levitt, whose puppy dog eyes and "aw shucks" composure work extremely well for this vulnerable, bruised character, is essentially a manic YouTube dream boy, but while it's easy to see why Flora would fall for Jeff, he's definitely not perfect. In fact, he's kind of a dick in certain moments, dismissive and judging her tastes. ("I think music is all about romance," Flora tells him. "Look at 'A Star is Born.'" "Not if I don't have to," he replies.) If another actor was playing this part, little moments like that might read as red flags, but it's a testament to Gordon-Levitt's natural likability that you're still rooting for these two to be together.

Carney has this genre on lock. No other working filmmaker has consistently captured what he's able to with his movies, zeroing in on the way music can bridge emotional distances. He understands the pure cinematic magic of having two smoking hot people sing their hearts out to each other in a stripped-down, vulnerable way, and the intimacy that arises is enough to overcome whatever shortcomings you may find in the music itself. Although the songs are pleasant in "Flora and Son," there's no song on its soundtrack that approaches the aching yearning of "Falling Slowly" from "Once" or the catchy "Drive It Like You Stole It" from "Sing Street." (To be fair, that's a very high bar to clear.) Carney doesn't exactly have a strict template because the details are different every time, but whatever he's doing, I hope he keeps it up for many years to come. His films may not all reach the emotional heights of "Sing Street," but he's able to draw you close in such a way that you forget about the occasional missed note and stay focused on the emotions, a winning strategy that should continue to serve him and audiences well.

/Film Rating: 8 out of 10