Song Sung Blue

January 16 – 22

Friday 1:30 & 7 pm
Saturday 7 pm
Sunday 1:30 & 7 pm
Monday 7 pm
Tuesday 7 pm
Wednesday 3:30 pm
Thursday 1:30 pm

Rated PG – 2hr 9min

Musical

We are in the midst of another wave of musical biopics. Elvis, A Complete Unknown, and Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere are among the more recent examples of traditional films that dramatize a beloved artist’s life, struggles, and art for the screen. There’s also been a few exceptions to the formulaic musical biopic, including the hilariously ridiculous Weird: The Al Yankovic Story and the uncanny Better Man, which reimagines pop star Robbie Williams as a chimpanzee. Now, a tribute band gets the musical biopic treatment with all the sincerity of a somber drama.

Craig Brewer’s latest film, Song Sung Blue, is—according to its opening title card—“based on a true love story” of Lightning and Thunder, a couple in Milwaukee who channeled their love of music into a passion project that became a Neil Diamond tribute show. Mike (Hugh Jackman) is a recovering alcoholic Vietnam War veteran who’s tired of singing half-hearted Don Ho covers at the Wisconsin State Fair. He decides to quit his job as a Buddy Holly impersonator alongside his friend Mark (Michael Imperioli); Mike, who also goes by the nickname Lightning, insists on performing as himself. A bright-faced Claire (Kate Hudson), a mom of two who’s about to take the stage as Patsy Cline, is intrigued by Mike’s passion.

When they connect, the chemistry is instantaneous, and the two quickly become a couple, a singing duo now named Lightning (Mike) and Thunder (Claire), and not long after, are married. Just as their bookings are taking off, Claire is horrendously injured in a car accident on their front lawn, and their story takes one of many turns.

Mike worships Neil Diamond, to the point that when he sings, he’s no mere impersonator — he’s closer to a Neil Diamond avatar, coaxing out and dramatizing Diamond’s essence. Hugh Jackman is, of course, a marvelous singer in his own right, and while the film makes the point that Mike isn’t trying to sound exactly like his idol, in “Song Sung Blue” Jackman’s musical performances are transcendent in their ability to signify what we love about Neil Diamond: the low command of his voice, the smooth articulation, the crackling rosiness of it all.

Jackman, with his scuffed fortitude, and Hudson, radiating a stubborn wholesomeness, have an easy-listening camaraderie, to the point that when Mike and Claire fall in love and get married, it feels both casual and inevitable. With a booker (Jim Belushi) who has casino connections all over the Midwest, they start to work the circuit and develop a following. Their ascent becomes complete when they’re in their living room and Mike gets a call from Eddie Vedder, who he’s never heard of (he wonders if Pearl Jam is a fruit preserve). It’s the early ’90s, and grunge hipsters have embraced the pop legends of their youth. When Lightning & Thunder end up opening for Pearl Jam in Milwaukee, and Eddie comes out onstage to sing along with them, they’ve basically just gone to karaoke heaven.

As the movie recognizes, there are two kinds of Neil Diamond fans: those who, like Mike, hear the beautiful depths in dozens of his songs (“Cherry, Cherry,” “Brother Love’s Travelling Salvation Show,” “Cracklin’ Rosie”), and the bom bom bom people — the ones Mike can’t stand, who at a Neil Diamond concert experience an epiphany when they pump their fists in the air and sing-shout “bom! bom! bom!” in the middle of the chorus of “Sweet Caroline,” even though it’s not even a lyric. They’re singing along with the trumpet. These are the people who have to enhance the line “Good times never seemed so good!” (“So good! So good! So good!”) until it becomes an existential declaration of the miracle of life.