Flora and Son

The title characters in Flora and Son start the film out of tune with one another, but at least they’re not literally in the trash.

Thus begins the journey for a discarded guitar that changes both of their lives and becomes the most sympathetic figure in this modest but affecting drama from Irish director John Carney (Sing Street).

The filmmaker is working within his comfort zone with this character-driven story of redemption through music that yields a working-class charm beneath the surface bickering and hostility.

The story opens in Dublin, where Flora (Eve Hewson) is a nurse and single mother struggling to bond with her rebellious preteen son, Max (Oren Kinlan). Flora might be suffering from arrested development as a parent, but her ex-husband and Max’s father (Jack Reynor) is no better.

After the youngster has a run-in with police, Flora rescues a used acoustic guitar from a dumpster and brings it home, almost out of desperation. “Who cares where it came from,” she explains to a skeptical Max, who prefers hip-hop. “It makes music.”

To save face, Flora begins taking online lessons from Jeff (Joseph Gordon-Levitt), a washed-up musician in Los Angeles. Their first Zoom session is awkward yet endearing as they open up to one another. He uses songwriting as a metaphor for relationships and she just flirts after drinking too much wine.

Their resulting connection, despite Jeff’s hesitance and geographic distance, brings a shared sense of optimism and gives Flora a new outlook that becomes infectious.

Carney’s screenplay strains to be edgy and its examination of fractured family dynamics is sometimes clunky. However, even when the intimacy between Flora and Jeff feels contrived, Hewson (daughter of singer Bono) and Gordon-Levitt convey an emotional authenticity.

Flora and Son seems like a variation on Carney’s previous projects in the way it weaves songs seamlessly and thoughtfully into the narrative. The notion that music can bring people together as a vessel for healing — while bridging generations and genres — is hardly new thematic territory, no matter how heartfelt.

Still, the filmmaker knows how to craft a lovely duet that perfectly encapsulates a mood, or how to melt your heart with a ballad that hits all the right notes.

Rated R, 97 minutes.