Although Song Sung Blue is about American music culture, there’s something Indian too about impersonators performing songs by their favourite musical artists. India has a similar scene of Kishore Kumar sound-alikes and Lata me-toos proving that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.
This act of one-way, expectation-free love for a celebrity far removed the fan’s orbit is the basis of Craig Brewer’s charming Song Sung Blue. Available to rent on BookMyShow Stream, the latest movie from the director of Hustle & Flow and Footloose is led by Hugh Jackman and Kate Hudson.
Both actors perform nearly all the songs in their own voices. Jackman has already proven his singing talent in the soundtrack for the musicals Les Miserables and The Greatest Showman. Hudson too has previously performed in her movies, and has been nominated for an Oscar for best actress for Song Sung Blue.
The 132-minute film is adapted from the Greg Kohs’s documentary of the same name, about the couple Mike and Claire Sardina. Before they set up the tribute band Lighting and Thunder, Mike (Jackman) and Claire (Hudson) are struggling with other personas. When the song’s over and the applause stops, I’m just another drunk, Mike remarks.
Diamond brings them together professionally and personally. They get married. Success finally follows.
They are an unlikely opening act for Pearl Jam, whose frontman Eddie Vedder (John Beckwith) joins them in signing one of Diamond’s standards with his trademark baritone. The film also tracks other singers on the impersonation circuit, flamboyant in their conspicuous wigs and shiny costumes and utterly sincere while performing at rural fairs and restaurants.
Brewer’s affectionate and colourful exploration of ordinary people who exult in the joys of live performance is packed with Neil Diamond hits, some of which express the ups and downs in the couple’s lives. Although unabashedly feel-good, the movie doesn’t neglect to show Mike and Claire in their lowest phases.
“Me and you are subject to the blues now and then, but when you take the blues and make a song, you sing them out again,” Diamond wrote in Song Sung Blue. The movie that shares the title is a tribute not just to the power of Diamond’s artistry, but also the resilience of the Sardinas.
Jackman and Hudson movingly play singers in love with Neil Diamond, the stage and each other. The actors portray their characters with dignity and honesty, capturing the extraordinary nature of unselfish fandom, which only gives and wants little in return.
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