Song Sung Blue soars with heartfelt tribute to Neil Diamond cover band |
The latest musical biopic is not a gleaming hagiography seeking to lionize the glamorous lives of rock stars or fawning fan service mythologizing their lavish escapades. Instead, Song Sung Blue, from filmmaker Craig Brewer, revolves around a real-life Neil Diamond tribute act, comprised of Mike, played by Hugh Jackman, and Claire Sardina, played by Kate Hudson, better known by their theatrical stage names: Thunder and Lightning.
Despite such grandiose monikers, these personas are confined to the stage, where the duo disappears into their performances and, for the fleeting duration of their setlist, transcends the despondent realities to which they are bound. Offstage, Mike and Claire are middle-aged, divorced, and barely middle-class Midwesterners, juggling odd jobs, overcoming alcoholism, raising children as single parents, and pouring any remnants of their energy into playing music.
It is at the Wisconsin State Fair in Milwaukee, amid a lineup awash in gimmicky impersonators, from a wig-wearing facsimile of Elvis to a neat and trim Buddy Holly, that the embryonic power duo first meet. Mike, ever the individualist, affirms that he is not some trite vaudeville act, but rather his own unique character, Lightning. His ardor immediately captivates Claire, who in turn enchants him with her performance of........