DRAMA; 2hr 13min
STARRING: Hugh Jackman, Kate Hudson
“Bum bum bum!” Jackman and Hudson
There’s nothing not to love about musical tribute artists, with their reverence for what they do and the balls-to-the-wall dedication it takes to get up there and do it. Enter Mike “Lightning” Sardina (Jackman), a Vietnam veteran and recovering alcoholic who sings his heart out “interpreting” singer-songwriter Neil Diamond in 1980s and ’90s Milwaukee.
Although ambivalent at first — “Why I gotta be anybody other than me?” he protests to his dentist-slash-manager, Dr Dave Watson (Fisher Stevens) — there’s no denying that tribute work pays, and Mike could sorely use some ready cash. He could also use the soulmate he discovers in fellow single parent and born performer Claire (Hudson), who breezes into the picture at a state fair while dolling herself up backstage as Patsy Cline. When Claire suggests that Mike is a natural fit as the legendary ND, he figures he has nothing to lose.
Diamond fans, get ready. Not only are the retro hits still a blast (“Bum bum bum!”), but Jackman, invested and unfiltered, has a soulful whammy of a voice, period-perfect hair and a heaven-sent scene partner in Hudson. As Lightning & Thunder, Mike and Claire are meant to be onstage and off, with Hustle & Flow director Craig Brewer’s celebration of the real-life married couple tracking them and their band (hello there Michael Imperioli on guitar!) from a garage rehearsal space to opening for Pearl Jam. Yep, really.
If that upswing were the Sardinas’ whole story, it would play as the fairytale they were, as Claire wistfully says, “so close” to making their own. That it isn’t by a long shot brings texture and depth to Brewer’s wholehearted shout-out, based on a 2008 documentary from director Greg Kohs. After all, when everything has been said and sung, to lose big and come back swinging is the stuff Neil Diamond’s music is made of.
