There are a lot of ways that “Song Sung Blue” — a film about real Milwaukee Neil Diamond tribute act Lighting and Thunder — could have gone awry. The premise alone could be a “Saturday Night Live” sketch, and in a different world, the movie would be a broad comedy and star Will Ferrell. Instead, it hews closer to tragedy and stars Hugh Jackman (who couldn’t do irony if he tried) as Mike Sardina aka Lightning, and Kate Hudson, as Mike’s devoted wife and bandmate Claire, aka Thunder.
Craig Brewer’s film is based on the 2008 documentary of the same name directed by Greg Kohs, but even if you were unaware of that, the unbelievable events of the Lightning and Thunder story are just too outrageous to be fiction, and Brewer maintains close fealty to the truth.
Brewer’s film takes a different tack than the documentary, which gets mired in the medical lows and economic woes of Lighting and Thunder. As both writer and director, Brewer is more interested in the emotional highs, especially the ones found in the music that Mike and Claire make together, which is an outpouring and expression of their love of Neil Diamond, their love of performance, and first and foremost, their love for each other.
When Mike and Claire connect at a local musical impersonators show (she’s doing a damn fine Patsy Cline, he’s refusing to do Don Ho) and decide to work on a Neil Diamond act together, Claire makes an important distinction — what they’re striving for is not an impersonation, it’s an interpretation. And “Song Sung Blue” takes that same tack when it comes to this duo. It’s an interpretation of their story, a loving tribute that focuses on what mattered the most to them: family and music.
Brewer, who also directed the Oscar-winning rap drama “Hustle & Flow,” and “Dolemite Is My Name,” has an interest in underdog artists and their creative process, and that’s seen best in the musical sequences of “Song Sung Blue,” where the connection between Lightning and Thunder crackles with electricity and takes flight. The camera is suddenly liberated, floating between and around them, allowing the audience in on the jam session. Whatever tragedies that befall them, Lightning and Thunder are always striving to get back to this transcendent feeling, this beautiful harmony that they achieve through the vessel of the Neil Diamond songbook, and Brewer makes that feeling palpable.
The film’s earnestness is why it works, a celebration of trying hard and doing what you love, even if other people don’t think it’s cool. Lightning and Thunder’s enthusiasm is so infectious it takes Milwaukee by storm, even catching unlikely folks like Eddie Vedder of Pearl Jam in its energetic wake, as he joins them for a version of “Forever in Blue Jeans” when they open for the band.
A running gag throughout “Song Sung Blue” illustrates the tightrope that Brewer walks, tonally. Lightning continually insists on opening the show with the Diamond deep cut “Soolaimon,” and it’s a funny recurring bit, but even that pays off into a moving climax where he gets the full choir he’s always dreamed of for the song. We laugh, and then we cry at “Song Sung Blue,” because it’s inspiring to watch people doing the thing they love, random acts from the universe be damned.
That extends to the performances, which are crucial for the film’s success. Jackman pours every ounce of himself into Mike’s dogged determination, but Hudson is the revelation here, showing off parts of her range we’ve never seen before, from her singing, to her portrayal of the darkest depths of Claire’s journey. It’s clear that Jackman and Hudson have love for these characters, honoring their stories while having fun with the colorful details, too. Brewer surrounds this pair with a strong cast of supporting actors including Michael Imperioli and Jim Belushi, with Ella Anderson and King Princess standouts as their teenage daughters.
Brewer brings a grounded and authentic aesthetic to the world of these big dreamers, while the musical numbers explode in a supernova of lights and sequins — even if it’s just karaoke night at a Thai restaurant. There’s an important lesson at the center of “Song Sung Blue,” about abandoning self-consciousness in a relentless pursuit of a dream. Despite the obstacles, their age, the setbacks, there is a pot of gold, not at the end of the rainbow but within it, in their shared dream. As the kids say, “to be cringe is to be free” — Lightning and Thunder might as well have invented the concept.
Katie Walsh is a critic for Tribune News Service.
“Song Sung Blue” — 3.5 stars (out of 4)
MPA rating: PG-13 (for thematic material, some strong language, some sexual material and brief drug use)
Running time: 2:13
How to watch: In theaters Dec. 25