by Brad Davis
Song Sung Blue (2025), directed by Craig Brewer, starring Kate Hudson and Hugh Jackman.
As the final credits of Song Sung Blue rolled, I found myself lingering in the shadows of the exit corridor not wanting to leave, humming along, surreptitiously mumbling some lyrics, dancing a step or two. A repetition of so many similar moments of body rising to meet with the music as I watched this dramatized and deeply emotive story of two musicians in love with their performative craft and each other. I did not feel alone suspecting that the audience that surrounded me in the theatre would — if it had not been for their quieted film etiquette and generalized Canadian politeness — have joined in with the onscreen pub crowd singing along to Neil Diamond’s songs, led by the protagonists Lightning and Thunder when Eddie Vedder of Pearl Jam joined them on stage when they opened for him. I felt deep sadness seeing how, after the many challenges Mike and Claire Sardina had already overcome, “forever in blue jeans” was not to be in their cards.
Yet whatever the story, Song Sung Blue invites one to transcend the barrier that separates the audience from performers on stage, street or screen — a system that generally dictates a certain passive consumption of a product. Instead, this film invites one to participate, and to feel the ups and downs of the story in body, heart and mind. Even, I believe, to find ways to participate in the passion for music and singing as a process of connection, therapy, and reaffirmation of how to be a fuller human. Perhaps not to the same reverential, immersive level of participation as with The Rocky Horror Picture Show around the world. With that said, I might picture the return of the film to the protagonists’ hometown of Milwaukee, where crowds will come out again and again over the years to sing along with Lightning and Thunder, and their interpretation of Neil Diamond’s music, well into the wee hours of the night. It makes me want to find my own magical, local cover bands as the snow falls in London, Ontario.
Lastly, how beautiful it was, in researching the story behind the dramatization of the film, to discover that Thunder and Lightning had — while not quite “Forever in Blue Jeans” — many good years together sharing their love of song.
