Song Sung Blue

Kate Hudson and Hugh Jackman

If you told me in the mid 1970s, when I posed as a cynical teenager, that I would one day enjoy a film about a Neil Diamond impersonator I would have been incredulous, but I found Craig Brewer's Song Sung Blue to be a well made delight. In 1975, I regarded Neil Diamond as cheesy and unhip, yet, by then, he had already composed his most lasting songs. My Neil Diamond epiphany, when I realized he could concoct a solid pop song, occurred around 1985 when I saw The Wygals cover Solitary Man in  concert. I had liked it when I first heard it when I was six in 1966 on the AM car radio, but I pushed my memory of it deep down into my subconscious. Hearing it out of its original context made me regard it anew and, lo, it was a well constructed folk-rock song. Overall, I would regard most of Neil Diamond's oeuvre as gauche and lousy. The dividing line is the Jonathan Livingston Seagull soundtrack which hit number two on the American album charts in 1973. The album is a turkey, the book and film are worse, and the rest of Diamond's career descends into complete dross. His work ethic and live shows made him the demi icon he is today. My consumer advice is to invest in compilations of his Bang and Uni years and avoid the rest like the plague. 

Diamond's niche was to merge Brill Building pop with the burgeoning singer-songwriter (aka Dylan and his acolytes) ethos; much like Carole King. Unfortunately, Diamond's taste hewed too closely to the three main pillars of American popular culture since Stephen Foster put a banjo on his knee: kitsch, schlock, and schmaltz. Certainly, some of Mr. Diamond's songs combine all three of these Yiddish adjectives. He is very much in the tradition of Jewish songwriters like Irving Berlin whose work did not look back to the old country, but embraced American culture wholeheartedly. Like Berlin, Diamond even wrote a Christmas standard, Holly Holy. Song Sung Blue captures the broad appeal of slightly cheesy tunes that people like to sing along to in a bar after a few pops. Diamond's music is a uniter of people in the film whether it be at casinos, Pearl Jam concerts, karaoke, AA meetings or Thai restaurants. Craig Brewer, in his more personal works, has tended to focus on outsiders or down and outers who unite together to create art that brings joy and pecuniary renumeration. This is as true of Song Sung Blue as it is of Hustle and Flow or Dolemite is My Name.

Brewer based his screenplay on a real life Wisconsin based couple who performed in a Neil Diamond tribute act known as Thunder and Lightning during the 1990s. Brewer had seen a documentary about the duo and has turned it into a stirring underdog tale. Now to do a tale of this sort, you need to provide a believable set-up of real life problems that the protagonists must overcome. Otherwise, you veer into predictability and schmaltz: this is the difference between the original Rocky and its sequels. The story of Thunder (Kate Hudson) and Lightning (Hugh Jackman) provides enough hardship for five films, earning its sappy moments. That said, I wasn't totally convinced that Mr. Jackman was a gritty Viet Nam vet with trauma and addiction issues. The dude is just too damn healthy looking. However, Mr. Jackman is the premier song and dance man of his generation, so he is nonpareil in the performance sequences. Ms. Hudson has received unprecedented kudos for her performance, deservedly. 

The opening sequence of Song Sung Blue, a concert of impersonators at the Wisconsin State Fair, which provides the meet cute for the protagonists, establishes the milieu of the film as on the fringes of showbiz. Life is a carnival for these folks, but there is no brass ring in store. The portrait of Thunder and Lightning's efforts to remain above water economically makes this one of the few relatively realistic films on American working class life starring a pair of Hollywood millionaires. As in Dolomite, Mr. Brewer elicits strong supporting performances that give the film background texture. I especially enjoyed the efforts of Ella Anderson, Fisher Stevens, King Princess, Michael Imperioli, and John Beckwith. I also really appreciated the editing of Song Sung Blue. Billy Fox's work gives the picture a propulsive narrative momentum.