🔗 Share this article Song Sung Blue Film Review: An Neil Diamond Tribute Story Receives a Heartwarming Boost from Hollywood Thanks to Hugh Jackman and Kate Hudson This film presents a startlingly strange, certainly enjoyable real-life tale emerging from the American entertainment world; a lovable crowdpleaser with its uplifting tone does little to warn you for how the plot frequently and brutally turns similar to a precarious carnival attraction. Personally, I found myself shutting my eyes with my jaw agape during several crucial moments, and was grabbing the seat in front of me with both fists. The Unbelievable True Tale The couple Mike and Claire Sardina, superbly portrayed by Hugh Jackman and Kate Hudson, were a Milwaukee married couple with kids from prior unions that during the 1990s formed a kitschy homage performance to Neil Diamond called Lightning and Thunder; they became an underground sensation within their state and even opened for Pearl Jam, with the band's guitarist Eddie Vedder amiably accompanied them on stage for an encore. However, life was not easy for them, and this film broods on the difficulty that arises when the lightning of ill fortune hits repeatedly. From Documentary to Drama It is in fact adapted from an existing documentary bearing the identical name created in 2008 from filmmaker Greg Kohs about this stranger-than-fiction world, a movie that relied extensively on the couple’s family archive of home video. One could argue that the original documentary puts more emphasis on the delusional and absurd aspects in the lives of Mike and Claire. Yet this is not the approach taken by this movie from writer-director Craig Brewer reimagines their tale. The director and stars transform the mockery into laugh-with. Jackman absolutely crushes it as a Neil Diamond impersonator, vocalizing in a remarkably similar manner, and appearing strikingly alike. He is entirely believable as someone who isn’t supposed to be in the big league but who clearly has the chops (and the vocal cords) to headline a performance. Notable Acting Hudson likewise shines, doing her own singing as Claire, who before she joined Mike in the Neil Diamond tribute world had a thriving act as Patsy Cline. She is shown belting out Cline numbers, even though one particular Cline standard that this film interestingly misses out. Michael Imperioli plays a Buddy Holly impersonator called Mark, and Mustafa Shakir is a James Brown act called Sex Machine. Ella Anderson plays Claire’s teen daughter Rachel, and King Princess portrays Mike’s daughter Angelina of about the same age – with their developing friendship is another underplayed aspect of the film’s likability. The Heart of the Story Irony and satire have been meticulously excised from the account of 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 involved in striving for success on the fringes of the music business, or indeed making it anywhere and in any business. It is a tale of relentless perseverance and its bright hopefulness renders it a calorific Christmas treat. The film "Song Sung Blue" is out on 25 December in the US and 1 January in Australia and the UK.