A new film inspired by a real-life tribute act follows two working-class Midwesterners who build a life and a stage partnership through hardship, music and resilience. With Hugh Jackman and Kate Hudson at its centre, it’s a reminder of how powerful a hopeful story can be.

_Song Sung Blue_ is a film about two battlers – divorced working-class, midwesterners, one a Vietnam veteran and reformed alcoholic, the other a single mum struggling to raise two kids, who meet, impersonating singers as entertainers.

Who would finance such a hokey, down-market story? Focus Features said ‘Yes’. And what a film it is. Like the kind they don’t make anymore – a feel-good phenomenon, joyous, fun, inspiring, full of life and love with characters who leap off the screen and grab your heart. I was blown away, and the audience was lifted by the exuberance of the characters and the great music they sing.

The film is based on a real couple in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Mike and Claire Sardino, who were the subject of a documentary, filmed across eight years, as with resilience and fortitude they rose above economic hardship and shocking tragedy. They were entertainers who loved to sing together and as the Neil Diamond tribute duo, they gained a local following in the bars and restaurants of middle America.

This was........

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