THREE CHORDS AND THE TRUTH (FLORA AND SON)

© Apple TV+ 

Sometimes it takes something really simple to ignite a film.

In John Carney's 'Flora and Son,' it comes halfway through and it's a Joni Mitchell song.

Eve Hewson's Dublin single mum Flora has been asked by her online guitar teacher, Joseph Gordon-Levitt's Jeff to listen to a song he's emailed her.

A dance music enthusiast, she starts playing a YouTube clip of Mitchell performing 'Both Sides Now'.

© Apple TV+ 

At first only half interested in the song, she goes about clearing plates off the table of the tiny inner city flat that she shares with her teenage son, Oren Kinlan's Max.

But as she scrapes food off her plates at the kitchen sink, you see the moment when Joni Mitchell's melody and lyrics start to pierce her heart.

Flora stops what she's doing and walks back to the table to watch the link and tears start to well up in her eyes.

It's a very John Carney moment.

© Apple TV+ 

The Dubliner's best films have always been about the emotions that music can stir and the deep personal connections that can be made when you create it.

Flora is a young mum whose son Max is having brushes with the law.

His father, Jack Reynor's Ian is an embittered musician whose big shot at fame with his band faltered.

His go to line is that they once supported Snow Patrol.

Living mostly with his mum in a block of flats near Dublin's quays, Max's relationship with Flora is fractious.

© Apple TV+ 

There's that mid to late teenager thing of being annoyed with a parent who's just not cool enough - even if she's a good deal closer in age to him than a lot of parents.

They also appear to have little in common which is evident when Don Wycherley's Garda officer visits them in their flat to warn Flora and Max that he's one petty crime away from winding up in court after another thieving incident.

When the policeman makes suggestions of things he could do to divert his attention away from crime, Max knocks down any notions that he should take up boxing or cycling.

Grime music is his wheelhouse but he doesn't really tell anyone about it.

© Apple TV+ 

Flora earns a living as a babysitter looking after infants in posh south Dublin homes.

On the way back from one house, she spots workmen clearing out someone's home for a renovation.

Climbing into their skip to see if there's anything of value, she comes across a guitar and wonders if it can be of use to Max if she restores it.

Max, who is also obsessing about another teenager in the flats Alex Deegan's Samantha, scoffs when Flora offers him the guitar - telling her it's not his scene.

© Apple TV+

Flora, nevertheless, decides to learn the guitar to see if creating music can help her connect with her son.

Stumbling upon Gordon-Levitt's LA based guitar teacher Jeff online, she pays $20 to learn the instrument over Zoom.

After breaking through her inner city Dublin sassiness, the teacher and his student develop a real bond.

This being a Carney movie, music unsurprisingly holds the key to Flora and Max also bonding.

She discovers he's a whizz on Garageband - creating his own Dublin flavoured rap tracks on his laptop.

© Apple TV+

But as mother and son re-establish a connection, can Max keep out of trouble through a love of music?

With films like 'Once' and 'Sing Street,' Carney has always been good at creating intimate relationship dramas fashioned around a shared love of pop music.

He's on familiar turf here for Apple TV+ and everyone slots comfortably into what is a tried and tested formula.

But while 'Flora and Son' is a charming watch, it often feels just a little too formulaic just like Carney's 2013 New York movie 'Begin Again'.

© Apple TV+

It's a bit like what an AI system might come up with if you asked it to produce a plot for a John Carney film about a working class Dublin mum and her son repairing their relationship through music.

All the ingredients are there in the first half of the film.

What's missing is the constant spark that made 'Once' and 'Sing Street' so magical - although it does have its moments, especially in the climactic scene.

You have to wait, though, for a while to get the first emotional gut punch which comes with the 'Both Sides Now' scene.

© Apple TV+

Another thing that strikes you is the story feels like it could be in the 'Modern Love' anthology series of one hour love stories that Carney has been crafting in recent years for Amazon Prime.

It feels too much like TV but you want it to cut loose as a film and on the occasions it does, it soars.

The performances in the film, though, are pretty good.

Eve Hewson has been blasted by some keyboard warriors and at least one fellow actor for having the temerity to play a working class mum.

Those people really ought to wise up.

© Apple TV+

If you haven't grasped it, Eve Hewson's an actress and what she does is called acting.

If she and every other actor only played people within their own lived experience, how dull their careers would be.

Stephen Graham and Jodie Comer would only ever play Scousers.

Ciaran Hinds would be restricted to middle class Belfast roles.

© Apple TV+

We'd never have had the phenomenal careers of Meryl Streep, Daniel Day Lewis, Marlon Brando, Ingrid Bergman or Paul Newman, with all those different roles.

Wind your necks in. 

She does a pretty decent job as a young, working class mum.

And if all that outrage is genuine, why focus just on Hewson's casting and not Jack Reynor's (which would be a ridiculous fight to pick too, by the way)?

© Apple TV+

Or is it because she's Bono's daughter?

Those also going on about her being a nepo baby, need to change the record.

Watch the Joni Mitchell scene. 

See how Hewson reacts to that song.

That shows exactly why Carney was right to cast her.

© Apple TV+

If anything, Hewson and Kinlan are the strongest cards in the film.

They gel well together and also with the rest of the cast.

They provide the movie's heart and soul.

As well as looking the spit of his actor father Laurence (Elmo from the RTE crime drama 'Love Hate'), Kinlan exhibits the same sense of teenage vulnerability his dad showed 23 years ago in Conor McPherson's movie 'Saltwater' with Peter McDonald, Brian Cox and Brendan Gleeson.

© Apple TV+

By way of contrast, Gordon-Levitt and Reynor are given less to work with in Carney's script.

They are inevitably overshadowed by their co-stars but they turn in solid performances.

In a neat trick, Carney allows Gordon-Levitt to step out from behind the laptop screen as if Jeff is actually giving Flora lessons in person.

However the lustre of that narrative trick eventually wears off.

© Apple TV+

As for the rest of the cast, Wycherley, Keith McErlean, Amy Huberman, Sophie Vavasseur, Marcella Plunkett and Aislin McGuckin are reliable in the minor roles.

'Flora and Son' is a good weekend watch on the living room sofa.

But you wish it were more than just that.

You want it to have a bit more heft.

© Apple TV+

With the exception of 'High Life,' the film lacks the songs or the live performance fireworks of  'Once' and 'Sing Street'.

It's kind of wistful and wholesome but not much else.

While it's certainly pleasurable to watch, you can't help but feel it needs a bit more bite.

Sometimes you really do need more than just three chords and the truth.

('Flora and Son' was released in UK and US cinemas on September 22, 2023 and was made available for streaming on September 29, 2023)