Song Sung Blue Review: Diamond Dreams Worth Believing

Here’s the thing about Neil Diamond songs: everyone knows the words. They’re the safe choice on road trips, the songs you belt at weddings without caring if you’re in key. When I heard there was a movie about a Milwaukee couple who started a Diamond tribute band, I figured I’d seen enough Neil for one year. I’d just caught the Broadway tour of A Beautiful Noise. My quota was met. But Song Sung Blue had other plans for me, and now I’m telling everyone I know to see it.

Director Craig Brewer adapts Greg Kohs‘s 2008 documentary into something sweeping and emotionally sneaky. Hugh Jackman (The Greatest Showman) plays Mike “Lightning” Sardina, a Vietnam vet and recovering alcoholic who works on cars but exists for performing. Kate Hudson (Glass Onion) plays Claire “Thunder” Sardina, a single mom doing Patsy Cline covers in dive bars and one-night road gigs when they meet. Together they build a Neil Diamond tribute act that takes them from garage rehearsals to opening for Pearl Jam. That’s not a typo. Pearl Jam championed them when they came through Milwaukee, and the film recreates this once in a lifetime opportunity for the couple.

Here’s when I’ll admit something: though I find them insanely charming as actors, I do feel that in the past both Jackman and Hudson could tip into a grating earnestness when they sing. There’s a polish to their delivery that sometimes feels like too much. Here, playing people who aren’t polished, who are rough and hungry and unrefined, that earnestness becomes an asset.

Jackman delivers one of his strongest performances in years as someone so locked into his dream that nothing can break him from it. Mike doesn’t just believe in himself, he believes in his audience. That combined respect allowed him to soar higher and higher. Hudson, already nominated for a Golden Globe for this, reveals a vocal range I didn’t know she had. She can lead or step back, and when the story demands emotional devastation, she delivers it. Together, the two of them generate real heat in the notes and where chemistry is concerned.

King Princess makes her screen debut as Mike’s estranged daughter, impressively avoiding the usual traps of a teen rejecting dad’s new family. Ella Anderson (Suncoast) brings warmth and maturity as Claire’s daughter Rachel who learns to love Mike through the eyes of her mother. Michael Imperioli (Oldboy), Jim Belushi (Gigi & Nate), and Fisher Stevens (Asteroid City) round out a supporting cast that feels appropriately Midwestern without being showy about it.

Cinematographer Amy Vincent shoots everything from cramped Milwaukee dive bars to arena stages with equal care. Editor Billy Fox keeps us focused on the right faces at the right moments while still creating that performer-audience connection between the actors. Sure, the costumes by Ernesto Martinez can read almost too well curated for maximum nostalgia, but even the most acid-washed jeans have some pizzazz to them.  Even the ‘Meel-Waah-Key’ accents didn’t read as overly performative or as worn like a strange mask for West Coast actors stretching.

I walked in ready to roll my eyes. I walked out wondering when I could see it again with a crowd. Maybe Brewer (Coming 2 America) and Focus Features just knew that we needed this right now. Maybe in a moment when everything feels divided and mean, a movie about two people finding each other and building something from passion hits differently. Song Sung Blue builds toward a climax that had me cheering through tears. It opens Christmas Day, and in a packed theater, this is going to be an experience. Jackman is great. Hudson might be even better. One thing is certain: I didn’t expect to love it this much.