Song Sung Blue - My Take (Spoilers)

 

Of course I was going to see this one, even though I'm still annoyed at Hugh Jackman. I lucked out in that it was the Screen Unseen, which to me seemed a little odd. They'd been hyping this movie way too much for me not to be suspicious of it in the first place and to have it take an "unseen" slot was both odd and a lie. There had been an advance screen the previous day at Dolby cinemas so it had been seen. Well. It wasn't released so maybe that's the technicality.

Anyway. On to the movie stuff.

The first trailer had this being a fun romp of a movie. The second trailer hinted that it was going to be darker than that. I'm pleased to say they made this a movie rooted in people. It could easily have turned into cardboard cutouts all around but they pulled it together around the family motif.

I will say that making Hugh Jackman look like a middle-aged guy from Milwaukee in the late 1980s was a feat to pull off and they did. But the poor guy can't seem to get away from being made to wear muttonchops. People talk about him wearing bad wigs but they never saw the hairstyles, and lack thereof, in that time period.

The funny thing that people are saying the most improbable events of the movie bother them but those events really happened. They're not pointing out the things that were done to adapt the real-life story into a movie. If you want the full real-life story, go watch the documentary that inspired this movie.

Mike and Claire are both small time musicians and they pair up, both musically and personally. They click in both areas. They're both struggling and divorced. She's got custody of her two kids, his ex has custody of his daughter. They work on their combined show and combining the families.

Things are sailing right along when the second act tragedy kicks in. Claire gets injured and has a problem with pain pills. Mike is struggling to keep the family together, to keep her together, and keep himself together. They don't hide the dark issues that come up and they show that people break.

Their act was barreling along before the accident and then after Claire gets the help she needed they eventually do get back on stage together. By this time they're so in tune as a duo (ha ha) that Mike can't go back to his solo career, although he tries. Claire wasn't able to do any of it but when Mike breaks down she wants to try.

They do the work to come back and get their biggest break.

Time to interrupt our story for another part of the story. Mike's got a bad heart. They show him having small heart attacks a couple of times and powering through them. There's a good, if made up for the drama/humor, scene when Claire is brought into the emergency room after her accident when he needs her stepdaughter to help him through one. There's more than a bit of foreshadowing here.

Their big break is a major, sold-out show. Earlier in the day Mike has a heart attack in the bathroom and hits his head on the counter. He patches up the bleeding scalp wound with superglue (he was a Marine (I know there's no former Marines) and he's a mechanic so he'd know to do that) and doesn't tell anyone. He has a brief episode before they go on stage and another one during the performance. Yes. Foreshadowing all around although the one during the performance is well twisted so you're not quite sure if it's what it is.

After their show they're going to meet Neil Diamond. When they get to the place Mike isn't responsive. They cut to the funeral so it's pretty clear what happened.

One of the things the movie doesn't do is give clear time references. There's one scene with a desk calendar but there's no sense of how long things happen. There's no telling how long it took to get their initial music group popular. There's no telling how long Claire was in rehab. There's hints of it but nothing more. And that lets things happen organically in the movie because they don't need to spell it out.

There's been some criticism about the death situation. The real Mike died from complications from the head injury after lingering for a few days. The implication here is that Mike died of a heart attack in the car. But they stick with the lack of time reference so we honestly don't know what happened in the car and how long between that and the funeral. Nor does it matter.

I liked this movie. I liked the way it centered around people and how complicated things can get. Sure, seeing Hugh Jackman in tidy whiteys was amusing. Even he can't make those look good and they were smart enough to pair them with a long t-shirt so you only get to see a little underneath that. You see some bare chested Hugh and again it's done properly - costume fittings and when he's passed out on the hospital floor after unbuttoning his shirt (for a real reason). Mike walks around without pants. It happens.

I'd say this is a good movie. It's going to be one of those ones you watch once in a while when you need to lose yourself, shed a few tears, laugh, and hear some good music. There's nothing wrong with that.