Song Sung Blah

Song Sung Blue has good lead performances and decent musical moments, but it’s an overall ho-hum affair that doesn’t nail all the notes.

By Craig Allan

Three stars

Song Sung Blue, a title that is as hard to say as it is to remember, is another musical biopic in the line of many musical biopics. Focusing on two smaller performers, it is different from biopics on artists like Elvis Presley or Johnny Cash; nevertheless, it still hits a lot of the same biopic beats. Hugh Jackman and Kate Hudson are a good pairing, and the movie flows well due to the use of Neil Diamond songs. But the movie is just another standard biopic that really loses steam in the second half of the movie.

While Jackman is known for his role as Wolverine in Marvel comic movies, he also has a history of being a song and dance man, appearing in projects like The Greatest Showman and plays on Broadway like The Boy from Oz and The Music Man. Jackman clearly has a love for musicals, so Mike “Lightning” Sardina is a good fit for him. While he does not look like Diamond, Jackman does well to channel what Lightning calls “A Neil Diamond experience”. Hudson is also in fine form as Lightning’s wife and singing partner, Claire “Thunder” Sardina. Between her singing and her midwestern twang, Hudson puts in one of the better performances of her career. Along with supporting performances like King Princess as Lightning’s daughter Angelina Sardina, and a real standout performance by Ella Anderson as Rachel Cartwright, Claire’s daughter from a previous marriage, the cast of Song Sung Blue is the highlight of the film.

The on-stage performances are also well done, with the movie injecting more life into the Diamond catalogue beyond “Sweet Caroline.” The film was directed and written by Craig Brewer, who has directed music-based films like Hustle & Flow and the remake of Footloose. Though he has experience directing music-driven movies, his previous efforts did not have large stage components, which did not show in the execution of the musical numbers. Credit to frequent Brewer cinematographer Amy Vincent as well for the look of these numbers.

While the acting and music are good, the movie falters in the second half. The second half involves a tragic moment, which sucks all the goodwill and energy out of the movie. Outside of a funny moment involving the repair of a car, this second half is a real downer. Hudson does a good job at showcasing sadness after showing how happy her character has been, but it gets to the point of being dull in the second half as the movie stops progressing.

While the first half is good, this film might be hard to access for people who are not fans of Neil Diamond. It could be that the underperformance of the Bruce Springsteen biopic Deliver Me from Nowhere is a sign that audiences might be getting tired of the musical biopics. Therefore, a movie not about Neil Diamond, but a cover band, might be really inaccessible for younger audiences who didn’t grow up with Diamond’s music. It might have been a better idea to just do a Diamond biopic, as that may have been a safer bet. Especially if it focused on his disastrous Jazz Singer remake.

Sing Sung Blue is a light, breezy affair that touches on connection and partnership, but it’s a little too clean in the first half and too down in the second. Comparing it to music, the song is not horrible, but the notes are off throughout. For audiences in the Vancouver Metro area, it might be more worth your time to hunt down a show from Nearly Neil, a Diamond cover band in the area, than to go out for Song Sung Blue.