Cheesy and corny and melodramatic, but also filled with the stuff that life is made of, with all of its joys and sorrows and mistakes and second chances. There are several plot threads that are left entirely unresolved, and Carney wants us to ignore them in favour of Flora and her son, I guess. That’s a shame, because these characters had more meat on their bones than Carney is willing to explore.
I was predisposed to like this, though, because I’ve played guitar for decades. The instrument was my first love. I played in a bunch of bands, made some music, recorded some stuff, did the whole nine yards. I found myself in many of these characters.
Today, I spend a lot of time writing and recording instrumental backing tracks that I release on YouTube — just like the son. Playing guitar is one of my life’s greatest joys, and everything Joseph Gordon-Levitt says about it in this corny film has been true for me.
All that to say that I loved this film more than it deserves.