With the success of CODA in 2021, which won all three Oscars it was nominated for, AppleTV+ original films went up in everyone’s estimation. But although it has since produced some interesting projects, such as The Greatest Beer Run Ever, Causeway and Spirited, that level of success has alluded them since.

And although this charming Irish film is unlikely to change that, it once again proves that the fruity one is willing to commit to all manner of diverse and interesting projects.

The biggest challenge facing single mum Flora (Eve Hewson) is her relationship with her 14-year-old son Max (Orén Kinlan). Although she often tries to connect with him, she’s usually kept out with him wearing headphones, as well as being constantly on his laptop or phone.

One day she tries to do one nice thing for him, by getting him a gift for his birthday, albeit a day late. But the gift, a guitar she found in a tip, doesn’t go down well, only causing yet another row.

Instead of getting rid of it, which she does try initially, she decides that she is going to learn how to play it. So as most people do now when they need to learn something new, she turns to YouTube, where there is an overwhelming amount of tutors available. One does catch her eye however, handsome American Jeff (Joseph Gordon-Levitt).

She soon finds herself absorbed by Jeff’s style of teaching, but what she wasn’t expecting is wider implications from his tutorials, which become less about lessons in music and more about life.

Irish director John Carney has already proven himself with films about music, having directed and written 2007’s Once, 2013’s Begin Again and 2016’s Sing Street. And just as he did with Once and Sing Street, he returns to the streets of Dublin, to complete an unofficial trilogy.

His latest is a warm-hearted affair, underlined with some delicious Dublin humour. It is solely character-driven, which is just as well when he has Hewson as his lead, in terrific form. No stranger to AppleTV+ herself, appearing as she does in Sharon Horgan’s wicked Bad Sisters, Hewson revels in playing a young woman struggling to not only be a better mother, but be a better version of herself.

She has plenty of other characters to play off of too, including her young son, and her ex husband Ian, played by Jack Reynor. This makes for some fun and frothy dialogue that is always entertaining.

However it’s his own script that lets the side down. Carney starts off in a good place, but the deeper into it he goes, the more lost the story becomes. For instance, he devotes a fair chunk of time to developing the relationship between Flora and Jeff, which is just as well as it works beautifully. But the film also feels hurried, in an attempt to wrap everything up in the perfect bow, but in rushing it loses sight of all the good it’s done in developing relationships on all fronts. To that end, the film’s ending doesn’t really do all its earlier work justice.

Still Hewson is wonderfully watchable, as she tackles the tough terrain of motherhood and personal development, and her performance alone is worthy of a viewing.

Flora and Son is vibrant and entertaining, rich with the kind of characters you would be more than happy to sit next to in a pub and enjoy the craic with, it’s just a shame we don’t get to enjoy a lock in, with everyone being turfed out dead on closing time feeling a little disappointed by the outcome.