On paper, Hugh Jackman and Kate Hudson’s “Song Sung Blue” might sound like a familiar movie plot: a struggling couple, a shared dream and music as a means of freedom and joy.
But what makes Craig Brewer’s latest film refreshing is its emotional weight and insistence that ordinary lives, when stitched together by love and perseverance, can become something remarkable.
Based on Greg Kohs’ 2008 documentary of the same name, “Song Sung Blue” tells the true story of Mike Sardina, a Milwaukee auto mechanic and Vietnam veteran, and Claire Stengl, a hairdresser, who meet late in life and form a Neil Diamond tribute act, “Lightning and Thunder: The Neil Diamond Experience,” that becomes both an unexpected local sensation and a lifeline for the couple.
Set largely in the late 1980s, the film follows their romance, marriage and blended family alongside their improbable rise as performers. It’s a story rooted in setbacks, including addiction recovery, divorce, depression and financial strain, but also in the joy of showing up, again and again, for one another.
Kate Hudson stars as Claire, a Midwestern mother navigating mental health struggles, broken relationships and the hope that comes from being truly seen. According to the “Almost Famous” actress, who has already been nominated for a Golden Globe for the role, the film offered the chance to highlight the beauty of community, and how often grief and joy go hand-in-hand.
“It’s about having someone in your life that believes in you when it’s hard to believe in yourself,” the 46-year-old actress told The Christian Post. “It’s about building a unit and a community that is supportive and cares for each other and builds each other up. It’s about the power of music. … For Claire and Mike, their shared love and passion [for music] brings them this immense amount of joy, and they fall in love through it.”
Hugh Jackman, who plays Mike, is no stranger to musical performance or big-hearted dreamers, starring in “The Greatest Show” and several runs on Broadway. Yet in “Song Sung Blue,” he portrays a man performing as Neil Diamond not to escape his reality, but to make sense of it.
“I believe in the power of music and of art,” Jackman told CP. “I think it connects people. It’s a language we all learn and understand. It doesn’t matter where you’re from, how old you are, what you’ve been through.”
For the 57-year-old native of Australia, the role offered a chance to reflect on how music functions beyond entertainment as memory and a source of comfort amid suffering.
“I certainly have had music that I’ve lent on I listen to over and over again,” he said. “And there’s music I’ve cried to, there’s music I walk to, dance to, cook to — music I listen to with different people in my life that it just means so much.”
That emotional accessibility is part of what makes Diamond’s catalog so central to “Song Sung Blue.” The sense of shared longing and the desire to be understood runs through the film; Mike and Claire do not conquer their struggles in dramatic fashion, but through a commitment to one another and their marriage in sickness and in health.
“[Claire and Mike] fall in love through this moment where they’re singing together,” Hudson reflected. “There are so many themes in this film that, at the core, are really about love.”
In “Song Sung Blue,” Diamond’s songs are played out in full, including “Holly Holy,” “Play Me” and “Brother Love’s Traveling Salvation Show.” “Lightning and Thunder: The Neil Diamond Experience” catches the attention of Pearl Jam frontman Eddie Veder, who asks them to open for his band when they play a big show in Milwaukee.
Throughout the film, and through Hudson and Jackman’s vocal talent, viewers are given the tongue-in-cheek reminder that Diamond, now 84, has an impressive catalog beyond “Sweet Caroline.”
“It’s been so great getting to discover [Neil’s] catalog,” Jackman said. “All of his incredible songs and those amazing lyrics, I think he’s underestimated as a lyricist, as a songwriter.
“Obviously, he’s one of the great live performers of all time, but I think his music is so soulful, and it really speaks to the human experience, how there is something we fight, a loneliness, this feeling of separation. Does anyone understand it? We have this desire to connect and share it, and through music, Neil does that.”
Through creating “Song Sung Blue,” Hudson said she was struck by Diamond’s artistic genius and sheer volume of his catalog. Diamond has sold over 140 million albums and been inducted into the Songwriters and Rock and Roll Halls of Fame and received a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award.
“It wasn’t my generation of music, so Neil Diamond became a real discovery for me, and his catalog is just insane,” Hudson said. “You can’t even imagine the songs that he’s written that he didn’t even make, actually, as famous. He’s just been a songwriter for so many years and has written so many hit songs. It’s wild.”
Jackman said he hopes the film serves as a “love letter” to Diamond and his remarkable ability to understand the human experience and provide comfort, hope and joy through song.
“Hopefully,” he added, “the movie’s gonna do the same thing.”
“Song Sung Blue,” directed and written by Brewer and produced by Focus Features, also stars Michael Imperioli, Ella Anderson, Fisher Stevens and Jim Belushi. The film is rated PG-13 for thematic material, some strong language, some sexual material and brief drug use.
“Song Sung Blue” opens in theaters on Christmas Day.
Leah M. Klett is a reporter for The Christian Post. She can be reached at: [email protected]
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