This been-there-done-that, feel-good comedy drama has plenty of good ideas but never quite manages to bring them together into something truly cohesive. It also shifts its focus a few times, bringing backgrounded characters to the forefront and trying to convince you they've been major players all along. In some ways, that's all reflective of the messy life of its protagonist and her journey to re-evaluate and re-prioritise what's truly important to her, but I feel as though giving the movie credit for cleverly structuring itself in a deliberately inefficient way that makes the experience of watching it mimic the experience of its characters is giving it too much credit. 'Flora And Son (2023)' is by no means bad, it's just a bit underwhelming and never really gets out of second gear. It has several strong performances and is generally well-made from a technical standpoint. Some of its storytelling choices are fairly inspired, even if its overarching story plays things mostly safe, and it's paced fairly well (even though you aren't gripped, you're never exactly bored). To say it's so concerned with music, it's perhaps strange that a lot of its tunes, for lack of a better term, kind of suck. I know that music is incredibly subjective (as is film), but I feel as though even within the songs are weak even within the genres they represent - especially the final piece of music, which plays to a crowd who treat it as if it's the next big thing when it's really just... rubbish. To be fair, one of the songs - which reoccurs but is at its most stirring when sung as a duet - is genuinely quite good and it provides the basis for one of the flick's most heartfelt scenes. Ultimately, this is a decent yet scattershot musical comedy drama that occasionally hits the right notes but often falls pretty flat. It's fine for what it is, but there's plenty of similar films that are just better.
Review of Flora and Son
