Palate Cleanser
There’s something unapologetically gleeful, hopeful and charming about this quasi-biopic melodrama and we’re here for it.
Song Sung Blue
Director: Craig Brewer • Writer: Craig Brewer
Starring: Hugh Jackman, Kate Hudson, Michael Imperioli, Jim Belushi
USA • 2hrs 12mins
Opens Hong Kong January 29 • IIA
Grade: B+
Fear not. Song Sung Blue is not a biopic of 1960s Tin Pan Alley legend Neil Diamond. Admittedly it’s a biopic of sorts, it’s just not a chronicle of the rags-to-riches drama of a tortured artist, with a pit stop at some kind of addiction, alienation from friends and collaborators, finishing with a grandiose yet bittersweet comeback. Okay, there is addiction, but trust me. Song Sung Blue is defiantly respectful, winking and nodding at the inherent silliness of the central, real life Neil Diamond tribute band, but never condescending about it (it’s based on a 2008 documentary by Greg Kohs). Writer-director Craig Brewer doesn’t laugh at working class Mike and Claire Sardina. He laughs with them, and it makes all the difference in the world because in the end, through a combination of performance, writing and tonal perfection, you give a shit about the Sardinas. As a bonus anyone under, oh, 32 will discover who the hell wrote that song that plays at every bloody wedding they’ve ever gone to. And will go to in the future.
Much of this works because Brewer is a seasoned veteran when it comes to music and music films, helming Hustle & Flow, which won Three 6 Mafia (remember them?) an Oscar while blowing the Academy’s mind, the unfortunate remake of Footloose and a bunch of episodes of Empire. He clearly has an affinity for how music swirls around us in life in general, which showed in Dolemite is My Name and the glorious swamp sleaze of Black Snake Moan. Guy can vibe, and more often than not he transcends foolishness to land on fist-pumping.
Jammin’?
Diamond has OTT lounge lizard in his DNA – the guy’s first album is called The Feel of Neil Diamond FFS – that lends itself to cheesiness, this depsite the fact that he’s written more than a few bangers in his long career. Songs that pop up in other pop culture (“I’m a Believer”, “Girl, You’ll Be a Woman Soon”), so it’s no wonder that 20-years-sober Mike (Hugh Jackman) takes up slightly lonely Claire (freshly minted Oscar nominee Kate Hudson) on her idea of forming the Neil Diamond Experience, with Mike as the Lightning to his eventual wife Claire’s Thunder. Divorcees Mike and Claire are average Wisconsinites with a taste for Diamond’s brand of brash pop, though Mike just can’t get his head around “Sweet Caroline” – that incredibly popular wedding staple. The two meet at a mid-range state fair (everybody has them – the Ekka to our friends in Brisbane, The Ex for anyone from Toronto, you know what I’m talking about) when Mike drops out of his gig as a Don Ho impersonator, much to the chagrin of the fair’s entertainment organiser, Buddy Holly impersonator Mark Shurilla (Michael Imperioli). Claire’s there doing a Patsy Cline act and the two hit it off.
Another of Song Sung Blue’s most refreshing elements is Brewer’s insistence that everyone act like a fucking grown-up. I know. Call me crazy. As Mike and Claire hone their Lightning and Thunder routine (and win over Pearl Jam’s Eddie Vedder as a fan and advocate) they throw their children together, who at first, of course, resist the connection. But duh, Claire’s daughter Rachel (Ella Anderson) and Mike’s daughter Angelina (King Princess), indeed have a lot in common, but more than anything act their age and come at each other as equals and potential family; Claire’s son Dayna (Hudson Hensley) rather likes having a dude in the house. After a rocky start Lightning and Thunder prove remarkably successful, the family clicks as a family – and then a catastrophe or five strikes.
Song Sung Blue’s combination of charm, joyfulness, emotionalism and dignity is a rare thing, and make no mistake: there’s plenty of janky dialogue and excess sentimentality to go around. But the underlying story about never being too old or too poor or too cornball to try something new and forge a new path injects the melodrama with the right kind of earnestness. The kind that doesn’t make jokes at its characters’ expenses even as it luxuriates in their sparkles, sequins and wind machines; Mike getting a Diamond-ish haircut is priceless. It helps that Lightning and Thunder’s crew is realised by a cast that perfectly calibrates their performances so as to feel like real, imperfect people who we want to see succeed, even on a modest scale. Jackman is a Broadway guy, so his performance comes as no surprise. The dude wrung a ripper out of The Last Showman despite the subject matter. The surprise here is Hudson as a woman in middle age re-embracing old ambitions, daring to accept romance later in life and absolutely belting it out. Sister’s got pipes, and she was enough of a surprise to earn Golden Globe and BAFTA nods ahead of that dark horse Oscar nomination last week.
Many, many viewers (maybe) outside of music nerds are going to be in clueless about Diamond’s work and his critical place in American pop music history, and though the film is an excellent primer on the man, if you don’t care it doesn’t really matter. It’s not his biopic, and the point is watching Mike, Claire, the band and their extended family sing like no one’s listening – though many are. On that front Brewer, Jackman and Hudson do not drop the ball, delivering a fabulous, stripped down “Cherry, Cherry” as Mike and Claire get to know each other; a deep cut for the band’s first infectiously energetic garage rehearsal in “Crunchy Granola Suite”; and the equal parts dorky and triumphant finale of “Soolaimon/Brother Love’s Traveling Salvation Show.”. Sheeeit. Where’s that Diamond playlist?