Song Sung Blue Review: An Neil Diamond Tribute Story Receives a Heartwarming Boost of Movie Magic Courtesy of Hugh Jackman and Kate Hudson

This film presents a startlingly strange, undeniably entertaining real-life tale emerging from the American entertainment world; an endearing hit with its uplifting tone won’t prepare you for how the plot repeatedly and savagely twists similar to a precarious carnival attraction. I actually had my eyes closed and mouth open at certain key points, and was grabbing the chair ahead with both fists.

The Stranger-Than-Fiction Story

The couple Mike and Claire Sardina, terrifically played by Jackman and Hudson, were a Milwaukee married couple with kids from previous relationships that during the 1990s formed a kitschy homage performance to Neil Diamond called Lightning and Thunder; they became a cult hit within their state and even opened for Pearl Jam, with the band's guitarist Eddie Vedder amiably accompanied them during their performance for an additional song.

However, life was not easy for them, and this film broods on how tough it is when the lightning of ill fortune strikes more than once.

Adapting a Real Story

The film is actually based on a prior documentary film of the same title created in 2008 by Greg Kohs about this stranger-than-fiction world, a film that was heavily reliant on the family's personal collection of homemade recordings. One could argue that the documentary focuses more intently on the unrealistic and ridiculous elements in the lives of Mike and Claire.

Yet this is not the approach this film from writer-director Craig Brewer reimagines their tale. The director and stars transform the mockery into laugh-with. Jackman absolutely crushes it portraying a Neil Diamond tribute artist, sounding almost like him, and looking almost like him. He’s perfectly plausible as someone who isn’t supposed to be the major leagues but who clearly has the chops (and the vocal cords) to carry a show.

Notable Acting

Hudson is also excellent, doing her own singing as Claire, who prior to partnering with Mike in the Neil Diamond tribute world had a thriving act as Patsy Cline. She is shown powerfully singing Cline's songs, even though one particular Cline standard that this film interestingly misses out.

Michael Imperioli plays a Buddy Holly impersonator named Mark, and Mustafa Shakir is a James Brown performer called Sex Machine. The role of Claire's teenage daughter Rachel is played by Ella Anderson, and King Princess is Mike's daughter Angelina who is around the same age – and their burgeoning friendship serving as another subtle element of the film’s likability.

The Heart of the Story

Irony and satire have been meticulously excised from Mike and Claire’s dramatically packed life stories, and in their place Brewer installs those qualities which the pair personally would have recognized: the vulnerability and loneliness of trying to make it in the margins of the music industry, or indeed succeeding in any field and within any profession.

It is a never-say-die story and its bright hopefulness renders it a calorific Christmas treat.

The film "Song Sung Blue" is out on 25 December in the United States and January 1st in Australia and the UK.