SONG SUNG BLUE
(director/writer: Craig Brewer; screenwriter: Greg Koh; cinematographer: Amy Vincent; editor: Billy Fox; music: Scott Bomar, Neil Diamond; cast: Hugh Jackman (Mike Sardina), Kate Hudson (Claire Sardina), Michael Imperioli (Mark Shurilla, Buddy Holly impersonator), Ella Anderson (Rachel), King Princess (Angelina), Mustafa Shakir (Sex Machine), Hudson Hensley (Dayna), John Beckwith (Eddie Vedder), Fisher Stevens (Dr. Dave Watson), Jim Belushi (manager, Tom D’Amato); Runtime: 131; MPAA Rating: PG-13; producers: John Davis, John Fox, Craig Brewer; Focus Features; 2025)
“A tribute film to Neil Diamond.”
Reviewed by Dennis Schwartz
Craig Brewer (“Hustle & Flow”/”Dolemite is My Name”) directs and co-writes with Greg Koh this musical true story of Mike and Claire Sardina (Hugh Jackman & Kate Hudson). The film’s title is derived from the name of a Neil Diamond song. Its faults are its pacing could have been better and it’s overlong.
The endearing story is about a Milwaukee blue-collar couple who created in the late 1980s and 1990s a Neil Diamond tribute band, with him performing as Lightning and she as Thunder.
It’s a heart-felt dramatization of the 2008 documentary of the same name, that was directed by Koh.
It opens with Mike at an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting playing his guitar, as he tells the group about himself and begins singing Neil Diamond’s “Song Sung Blue.”
We learn Mike’s a Vietnam War vet and an auto mechanic, who met the hairdresser Claire in 1987 when she was performing at the Wisconsin State Fair as Patsy Cline and he was doing a Neil Diamond impersonation. The Fair holds the event where the amateur performers imitate musical legends.
The two singers make a connection both musically and romantically and form a duet becoming their own characters Lightning and Thunder. The couple tour together in bars and at local clubs, and soon marry. Mike is divorced and Claire is a single mom with two children (Ella Anderson & Hudson Hensley).
The first half of the film is joyous for the middle-aged couple. In the early ’90s they get a call from Eddie Vedder (John Beckwith) to open for Pearl Jam. But things turn ugly after Claire is hit by a car while standing on her lawn, and Mike struggles as a recovering alcoholic and has a mild heart attack.
This tribute film to Neil Diamond should thrill all his “Sweet Caroline” fans and those who admire him for his other songs. The performances by Jackman and Hudson are terrific, the story is respectfully nostalgic, and the music features such memorable Diamond songs as “Play Me,” “Cherry, Cherry,” “Brother Love’s Travelling Salvation Show,” and “Cracklin’ Rosie”.
It played at the AFI Film Festival.
REVIEWED ON 11/1/2025 GRADE: B
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