Song Sung Blue
Kate Hudson and Hugh Jackman star in SONG SUNG BLUE. (Photo: Focus Features)
In art as in life, as Song Sung Blue demonstrates, there’s no obstacle that can’t be conquered by a sing-along of “Sweet Caroline.”
Basking in nostalgia and benefiting from a toe-tapping song catalog, this heartwarming musical romance does for 1970s icon Neil Diamond what Mamma Mia did for Abba, with enough scrappy blue-collar charm to offset the cliched predictability.
The film opens with an amusing meet-cute backstage at a performance of traveling rock-star impersonators at the Wisconsin State Fair in the late 1980s. Among them is Mike (Hugh Jackman), a Vietnam veteran with a checkered past who has found purpose through sobriety and his affinity for all things Diamond.
Despite butting heads with the Buddy Holly imitator (Michael Imperioli) who runs the show, Mike’s dogged determination catches the eye of Patsy Cline imitator Claire (Kate Hudson). “You don’t want to be a Neil Diamond impersonator,” she tells him. “You want to be a Neil Diamond interpreter.”
They eventually get married, with Mike becoming a stepfather to Claire’s two kids, and take their shared act on the road. We see how she willingly sacrifices her own dreams so he can pursue his.
It’s hardly a lucrative pursuit for starters, but when fate intervenes with near-tragic circumstances, their bonds are tested away from the stage.
It hardly matters that Jackman doesn’t really mimic Diamond’s physical features (except for the bushy sideburns) or gravelly voice, because he’s not playing the man. He’s portraying a superfan, and Jackman’s scrappy charm and ebullient charisma galvanizes the film.
The screenplay by director Craig Brewer (Hustle and Flow), adapted by a 2008 documentary about a real-life Diamond tribute act, softens most of the edges in its redemption arc for mainstream crowd-pleasing consumption.
The film falls out of tune when the music stops — in other words, when it’s less about Diamond and more about Mike — and the cheesy family melodrama and eye-rolling contrivances don’t yield the desired emotional resonance.
Yet even when it lacks nuance, it offers a playful glimpse into the culture of impersonators who compassionately carry on the legacy of performers from a bygone era.
Song Sung Blue finds its rhythm as a bittersweet tribute to the timeless appeal of Diamond specifically, but also to the broader connective power of music across generations.
Rated PG-13, 131 minutes.