Focus Options did Track Sung Blue no favors by positioning it as an Oscar hopeful earlier than its launch. The pressures of awards season aren’t at all times form to the flicks that endure them, even those that win, and a few initiatives are simply higher off staying out of that dialog. A wonderfully nice viewing expertise can warp and collapse below a stage of scrutiny it simply wasn’t constructed to resist.
In one other time, this might have been a kind of instances, however Track Sung Blue is fortunately a couple of years too late to be an actual contender. This feel-good tearjerker is drenched in a Hollywood cheese that the new-look Academy hasn’t discovered as palatable because it used to. With out that context to weigh it down, it is totally pleasurable. It solely takes a couple of minutes to be swept up by the music and the pleasant chemistry of its stars, and the trip the film takes you on from there may be a lot better felt than studied.
Hugh Jackman & Kate Hudson Track Sung Blue An Enduring Coronary heart
Directed by Craig Brewer and tailored from the 2008 documentary of the identical identify, this movie follows the whirlwind journey of two musicians who type a Neil Diamond tribute band in Nineteen Nineties Wisconsin. Mike Sardina (Hugh Jackman), who already goes by Lightning after we meet him, is a small-time gig participant chafing in opposition to his lack of ability to shine on his personal phrases. He is presupposed to carry out with a gaggle of musical impersonators as a last-minute favor for his buddy Mark (Michael Imperioli), however will not undergo with it. It is Lightning or nothing. Mark picks nothing.
The job is not a complete wash. He meets Claire (Kate Hudson), a hairstylist performing because the group’s Patsy Kline, they usually appear to attach on a soul stage. On their first date, they uncover that they are suitable not solely romantically, however musically; perhaps the 2 aren’t wholly separate. Claire thinks Mike is a useless ringer for Neil Diamond, whose music he reveres, however he’d solely pursue that if he may very well be one thing between impersonator and tribute act, performing Diamond’s songs as Lightning. Would she take into account being his Thunder?
That early sequence is probably Track Sung Blue‘s finest. It progresses with the pure high quality of any well-oiled romcom, however as two middle-aged folks step by step realizing they’ve ultimately discovered the love of their lives, Mike and Claire react with shock at every good match. Jackman and Hudson create a giddiness between them that radiates by way of the body. From this second on, the center on the core of this film turns into unimaginable to doubt. Each time the story will get shaky, Brewer returns us to it, and we’re again on stable floor.
This scene additionally faucets right into a basic pressure on this fictionalized rendering of a real story. Mike and Claire are down-to-earth, on a regular basis folks whose modest dream to entertain takes them past what they may’ve imagined. Hugh Jackman and Kate Hudson are film stars. At any given second, their shine threatens to disrupt the quirky relatability of those characters, and the extra emotionally grounded model of this movie would’ve featured much less recognizable faces. However additionally they give them a type of destined high quality that works finest when utilized to their relationship.
This dimension could have been what acquired the studio seeing little golden statuettes. To play these regular folks, Track Sung Blue‘s leads need to (gasp) shed their glamor a bit. Jackman’s legs on this film are virtually a sight gag, whereas a flip within the story sends Claire on a tough spiral, to which Hudson absolutely commits. Traditionally, that type of factor has been Academy catnip. However these performances, although good, are hardly uncooked. These are lovely well-known individuals who stay lovely and well-known even with much less make-up than typical – that is a part of why the film works.
It is also why some emotional registers work higher than others. When the couple are driving excessive or performing, the movie hums. Having the ability to sit again and revel in not simply the music, however considerably skeptical audiences being gained over by it, is a big chunk of Track Sung Blue‘s enchantment. However not every little thing goes Mike and Claire’s method, and regardless of some touching moments (Jackman quivering at a check-in desk hits the toughest), these dips into hardship simply aren’t as efficient. By retaining the chaotic, virtually playful edge that permeates the movie, there’s an artificiality to those scenes, as in the event that they’re emotional tourism for a special, brighter film we finally return to.
Artifice is all over the place on this movie, after all. Brewer operates on the model of Hollywood contrivance that stuffs practically 20 years of real-life occasions into two. By the tip, Claire’s younger, un-aging son features virtually like a leap scare. However all that’s simply forgiven. Ignore the publicity bluster, and you will find on the core of Track Sung Blue the identical modest dream to entertain that drives the Sardinas. Is it probably the greatest movies of the 12 months? Actually not. However a very good time on the films? You betcha.
- Launch Date
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December 25, 2025
- Runtime
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132 minutes
- Director
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Craig Brewer
- Writers
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Craig Brewer
- Producers
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John Davis, John Fox, Craig Brewer