By John Corrado

★★★ (out of 4)

The 2023 Toronto International Film Festival runs from September 7th to 17th, more information on tickets and showtimes can be found right here.

Flora and Son is another incredibly enjoyable music film from Irish writer-director John Carney, building out his oeuvre from the power trio of Once, Begin Again and Sing Street. The result is an entertaining crowdpleaser about mothers and sons, second chances, and the healing power of learning to play an instrument.

Flora (Eve Hewson) is a young, working class mother in Dublin, whose sullen 14-year-old son Max (Orén Kinlan) is in and out of trouble. Desperate for a way to break through to him, Flora finds a beat up old guitar and encourages him to play; after all, her ex-husband Ian (Jack Reynor) – Max’s dad – was in a band. Max rejects the instrument, so Flora decides to learn to play it herself, and starts taking online lessons from Jeff (Joseph Gordon-Levitt), an instructor living in Los Angeles.

From here, Flora and Son unfolds showing the online connection that develops between Flora and Jeff, as Max starts to open up more. Hewson carries the film with her fiery portrayal of a foul-mouthed young mum who still loves having a good time, and Gordon-Levitt charms as her laid-back music teacher. The conceit of these lessons taking place over the internet isn’t the most visually interesting, but Carney gets around it somewhat by having Flora imagine they are in the room together, allowing his actors to share the screen. It helps that the two have natural chemistry together.

Sure, it’s a somewhat predictable story, but it’s nice to see a director doing what they do best, and doing it well. This is Carney confidently playing a new variation on a familiar tune (the film doesn’t quite reach heights of Sing Street, but really, what does?). We get a number of catchy original songs co-written by Carney, experimenting with a bit of a different sound from his previous films, with Hewson and Gordon-Levitt’s duet “Meet in the Middle” having the most breakout potential. This is delightful and big-hearted stuff. I was smiling throughout.

Public Screenings: Tuesday, September 12th, 9:30 PM at Roy Thomson Hall; Wednesday, September 13th, 9:00 PM at Scotiabank Theatre; Saturday, September 16th, 2:45 PM at Scotiabank Theatre