Song Sung Blue finds a Neil Diamond impersonator in the rough

While Song Sung Blue doesn’t enter full Walk Hard territory, watching Jackman-as-Mike try to find his best Diamond impression is surreally funny counterprogramming to this year’s Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere and last year’s A Complete Unknown. Song Sung Blue is happy to poke fun at the self-seriousness of artists who make a living studying and recreating the mannerisms of the famous. Yet a scene where Mike and Claire first start to work out an arrangement of “Cherry, Cherry” also highlights the genuine talent that goes into an artform Claire dubs “interpreting” rather than impersonating. The line earns a laugh when she says it, but it’s soon clear there actually is quite a lot of artistic expression to the harmonies she provides, the musical timing of her piano accompaniment, and the chemistry of their performance. Over the course of a date-turned-work-session, Mike realizes he shouldn’t just be a solo act—he and Claire should be “Lightning And Thunder: A Neil Diamond Experience.” 

Billed as being “based on a true love story,” Song Sung Blue gives Mike and Claire’s partnership center stage. While both actors are far more glamorous than their real-life counterparts, Jackman effectively channels the fundamental decency of a working-class guy constantly toeing the line between pie-in-the-sky dreams and pragmatic decisions. And Hudson has never been better than as a cheery Midwestern single mom who’s striving to grab the moments of magic that she now realizes happen less and less the older she gets. Based on the 2008 documentary by Greg Kohs, Sung Song Blue could have turned Mike and Claire into Christopher Guestian figures of comedy. Instead, it finds dignity within the bedazzled costumes, makeshift wind machines, and Thai restaurant performances that aid their increasingly popular novelty act. 

That earnestness alone could have fueled a crowdpleaser in the vein of Sing Street or Blinded By The Light. But several shockingly dramatic events take the film out of feel-good territory and into full-on melodrama at times—great news for the breadth of Hudson’s acting chops, less so for the cohesion of the story. Ironically, Mike and Claire experience their own version of the rise-fall-rise structure that anchors so many conventional musician biopics. And while Brewer renders those turns sensitively, the film’s focus starts to fracture in its second half. Brewer has clear affection for Mike and Claire as struggling strivers and caring parents and partners, but shines less clarity on how Diamond fits into their story when things go south. Why is he the artist they keep returning to, other than the fact that he’s got a soft rock song for every mood?

Still, perhaps this is the right approach to Diamond’s easy listening catalogue. Song Sung Blue doesn’t make the case that Mike and Claire are great artists, or even that Diamond himself is. But it does make the case that art doesn’t have to be great to make an impact. There’s power to a bar full of people belting out “Sweet Caroline,” just as there’s power to watching two middle-aged oddballs fully commit to a passionate onstage performance of “Soolaimon.” Like a Diamond song, Song Sung Blue is a little corny and a touch overly familiar. But when it finds its wavelength, the good times never seemed so good. 

Director: Craig Brewer
Writer: Craig Brewer
Starring: Hugh Jackman, Kate Hudson, Ella Anderson, King Princess, Fisher Stevens, Jim Belushi, Michael Imperioli, Mustafa Shakir, Hudson Hensley
Release Date: December 25, 2025