Irishman John Carney in the film 'Flora and Son' once again tells a story about the healing power of music – this time it saves a family.

What if you feel like you're living a life you don't deserve? What if you can't shake the feeling that your story hasn't been written yet? What to do in such a situation? John Carney ('Once', 'The Commitments') has an answer in the film 'Flora and Son' – pick up a guitar and start playing, even if you know nothing about music. That's exactly what the main character, played by the rapidly rising Eve Hewson, does.

Just Once in Your Life

Flora is a young mother from Dublin raising her teenage son Max, who constantly gets into various scrapes. It's not that the child is rebellious, but living with divorced parents who are former drug addicts, he lacks a role model and isn't well-prepared for life in society.

Flora herself, having become a mother early, never really had time to live for herself. At some point, accidentally finding an old guitar, she decides to learn to play it just for herself and to impress people. Just once in her life, to do what she wants. To do this, she hires a private online tutor – a handsome guy from distant Los Angeles, whose life has also been quite rough (Joseph Gordon-Levitt).

By all rom-com conventions, a dizzying love story with ups and downs, mutual reproaches, and an irresistible attraction should follow, ending with a meeting at the airport or a kiss in the rain.

But John Carney is a different kind of director. He is a much more mature and subtle filmmaker. He plays with accents, makes his characters feel alive, and even when magic happens on screen (usually musical episodes), he doesn't forget that life is not a fairy tale. And this healthy skepticism makes the film much more appealing.

Even when Gordon-Levitt's ideal hero for Flora steps off the screen and sings with her on the roof about love, everyone understands perfectly that this is just a moment. Yes, beautiful and unforgettable, but barely perceptible and unlikely to fundamentally change anything. And that's okay. Because that's the beauty of life – in such moments.

Carney once again articulates what he has done in all his previous films – music can heal. And in this story, it is precisely this, not ephemeral love, that Flora needs. Through online guitar lessons and light flirtation with a talented but distant man who opens up the wonderful world of music to her, she begins to understand herself better, and along with that, her son, who is also into music.

Is the Film 'Flora and Son' Worth Watching?

Behind the unpretentious plot of the Sundance hit (the project was acquired by Apple TV+ after its success at the festival) lies a simple but surprisingly accurate idea – if you want to live the high life, it's your conscious choice, not fate or any other external circumstances. Even if you live in a small 'box' somewhere on the outskirts of Dublin, raising a troubled teenager, and don't know what lies ahead, you can always enjoy what's happening. Sometimes all it takes is picking up a guitar.

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