Review: Song Sung Blue

Image courtesy of Focus Features.

Some critics have complained that Craig Brewer's "Song Sung Blue" tugs a little too hard at the heartstrings, but what they fail to mention is that when it does it's a relief from the surprisingly bleak turn the film takes about halfway through its running time.

The film comes amid a wave of recent music biopics - "A Complete Unknown," "Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere," "Elvis," the upcoming "Michael" and the Cameron Crowe film about Joni Mitchell - but what differentiates it somewhat is that the film is about a duo about whom most viewers, unless they're from Milwaukee during the 1980s and 1990s, haven't heard.

The picture follows the true story and struggles of Mike (Hugh Jackman) and Claire Sardina (Kate Hudson), two musical impersonators (she performs as Patsy Cline, he as a variety of entertainers such as Elvis or, much to his chagrin, the occasional Don Ho). She's a single mother of two, while he's a Vietnam veteran who we are led to believe has seen the worst of it and who was a past alcohol abuser. The film opens with him singing a song in an AA meeting.

However, the performer whom he holds in the most esteem is Neil Diamond, whom he claims helped him to get through some hard times (this is not elaborated on), and he therefore refuses to perform as the so-called "Jewish Elvis" because he reveres him too much.

But upon meeting Claire at an impersonator concert - where Michael Imperioli gives a surprisingly believable Buddy Holly tribute - she convinces him otherwise. He performs under the stage name "Lightning" and she decides to join him in the act as "Thunder." 

The first half of the film portrays their often joyous and amusing rise to the top of local Milwaukee talent. There's a particularly amusing - and apparently true - sequence in which Lightning and Thunder are asked to open for Pearl Jam (this is now into the early 1990s) when they pass through town, and a game Eddie Vedder joins them on stage for "Forever in Blue Jeans."

Then, something unspeakable happens that I won't give away - but of which you may be aware if you've read a review or even seen the trailer. One of the members of the duo is incapacitated and goes into a downward spiral that threatens both the act and the marriage after Lightning and Thunder not surprisingly tie the knot.

In between, there's a whole lot of what one might expect when the couple brings their children from previous marriages together, including some not quite surprising strife, although a nice friendship is struck between each of the musician's teen daughters.

But what really surprised me is how dark "Song Sung Blue" gets in its middle section. For a Christmas weekend movie about some Neil Diamond impersonators, it gets a bit dark. The other thing that knocked me a bit sideways was Hudson's vocal abilities. She gives one her best performances here since her breakout performance in 2000's musically inclined "Almost Famous." So, while it didn't surprise me that Jackman could carry a tune - he started out on Broadway - I was impressed by Hudson's vocal talents.

Brewer has long made movies having to do with music, some to solid effect ("Hustle & Flow") and others to lesser effect (the "Footloose" remake). "Some musical biopic cliches aside, Song Sung Blue" is among his better films, and it's mostly due to the abilities of his two leads. Also, there's a running "Soolaimon" joke that I found amusing. This is a movie that I liked a little better than I expected.