Song Sung Blue (A PopEntertainment.com Movie Review)

Song Sung Blue

SONG SUNG BLUE (2025)

Starring Hugh Jackman, Kate Hudson, Michael Imperioli, Ella Anderson, Mustafa Shakir, Fisher Stevens, Jim Belushi, King Princess, Hudson Hensley, Cecelia Riddett, Sean Allan Krill, Beth Malone, John Beckwith, Erika Slezak, Jayson Warner Smith, Jim Conroy, Kena Anae, Darius Rose, Shyaporn Theerakulstit, Chacha Tahng, Faye Tamasa and Darius de Haas.

Screenplay by Craig Brewer.

Directed by Craig Brewer.

Distributed by Focus Features. 132 minutes. Rated PG-13.

Song Sung Blue is something new and unique in the world of music bio-films, for better or worse. Instead of being what you may assume from the title, the mostly-true story of Tin Pan Alley pop and rock star Neil Diamond, this film is instead inspired by the mostly-true story of a Neil Diamond tribute act.

“Thunder and Lightning – The Neil Diamond Experience” was apparently extremely popular for a while in the mid-90s – or at least as popular as an all-covers band in the Milwaukee, Wisconsin area can be. After all, even this feel-good story of their rise to success shows that other than a couple of shows at mid-sized theaters, they mostly played in places like biker bars, union halls and Thai restaurants.

Thunder and Lightning are Mike and Claire Sardina (played by Hugh Jackman and Kate Hudson). He’s a recovering alcoholic auto mechanic who at one point was a minorly successful local rock singer but has now settled into doing classic rock covers. She is twice-divorced hairdresser who has a nighttime side gig doing Patsy Cline tribute sets. They meet, fall in love, get married and start a group together based upon their mutual love for the music of Neil Diamond.

They go (rather quickly, with little explanation or exposition, honestly) from being barely able to get a gig to working constantly, having rabid fans and getting local TV news coverage, to the point that when popular rock band Pearl Jam is playing in Milwaukee, lead singer Eddie Vedder cold-calls them to ask Thunder and Lightning to be their opening act for the show.

It goes without saying that Hugh Jackman has the singing skills for all this, as does Hudson, who has done her fair share of recording too.

And do you know what? It’s actually a lot of fun. Well, at least it is until it is not anymore.

Because about halfway through the film takes an extremely dark, rather tragic turn and becomes a lot less enjoyable than it had been. For spoilers’ sake, I won’t tell you what happens, but you’ll know when you see it. It almost seems like this one occurrence changes the entire complexion of the film and its moods. (Neil Diamond album title reference alert!)

It actually feels rather manipulative, although mission accomplished, the person I saw Song Sung Blue with was a crying mess at the end of the film. Myself? Well, I was not quite as moved by the rather obvious attempts to make me sob.

Like I said, this is supposed to be based on a true story, so I’m not sure how close to reality the film remains. I will just say that eventually it feels like life is just throwing adversity at this couple at random. Also, there are at least two or three major plot points that if they are not the truth – and I’ll freely admit that I don’t know if they are – would normally be cut from the early drafts of the script because they seem just way too coincidental and unlikely.

It reminds me of something one of my college writing professors used to always preach to us in class, “The truth is no excuse.” Just because something actually happened does not mean that it will make narrative sense in a story context.

Also, while the music here is mostly wonderful, perhaps it is being just a bit too precious with the Diamond discography. It is a running gag that Mike always gets annoyed that everyone assumes that “Sweet Caroline” is the only real classic tune in his catalogue. I even agree with Mike on that matter, “Sweet Caroline” used to be a favorite song of mine but has been sort of battered by decades’ worth of drunk people shouting out “Ba ba ba” and “So good, so good, so good,” over the choruses every time it gets played.

Therefore it is nice that this film airs out some lesser-known songs (mostly from the mid-late 60s through the 70s), I assume because they were the real Mike’s favorites. It is nice that some more obscure stuff like "Soolaimón," “Crunchy Granola Suite” and "Brother Love's Travelling Salvation Show" gets an airing.

However, those songs end up getting played two or three times each, when so many great Neil Diamond songs from this period are completely ignored, like, for example, “Solitary Man,” “Shilo,” “Girl You’ll Be a Woman Soon,” “Walk on Water,” “If You Know What I Mean,” “Desiree,” “September Morn” and “Kentucky Woman,” which is name-checked in the script, but never actually played. Also name checked and never played; “You Don’t Bring Me Flowers,” but I can live without that one.

Yet even though I would have liked more of the feel-good aura of the first half of the film and less of the slightly maudlin melodrama of the back half, I have to admit that I feel a certain affection towards Song Sung Blue. The movie is sort of like Thunder and Lightning themselves, good-hearted, unpretentious and passionate about its Neil Diamond fandom.

Jay S. Jacobs

Copyright ©2025 PopEntertainment.com. All rights reserved. Posted: December 23, 2025.