What a bizarre musical biopic. Here is a story about a band trying to pay tribute to Neil Diamond, set in a movie framed as a typical musical biopic. In the same way that the rocky roads of Bob Dylan and Bruce Springsteen are granted the big-screen and sentimental treatment, so too are those of Mike Sardina and Claire Sardina, aka Lightning & Thunder. They didn’t have the biggest stretch of fame beyond some associations with bigger names, but that concept is stretched out like melodramatic taffy with top-name actors and a cinematic musical approach.

Hugh Jackman seems too good for playing the role of Mike Sardina, a man whose opening number is for an AA meeting. The framing suggests a sense of humorous humility, suggesting that Mike’s ultimate goal as an impersonator is to be more like Neil Diamond and less like Don Ho. The good news is that film never goes that way by harping on the absurdity of a tribute band. Mike’s romance with a similarly talented singer, Claire Sardina (Kate Hudson), is portrayed with a more genuine appreciation for the stage than with how these two spend so much time thinking about who they most want to emulate. They’re made for each other with their divorced situations and a longing to play to a crowd. Yet, you can feel the underlying gags in the limited walls of the profession they’ve adopted. Case in point: their big break comes in the form of a casino tour guide played by Jim Belushi. I wanted to laugh at the camera pullback, but the film takes itself so seriously that any tongue-in-cheek jokes all but disappear as the music and melodrama sink it further into the bland depths of the sub-genre.

This film can never find a groove when it doesn’t have Hugh Jackman and Kate Hudson on a stage. When they perform, they’re nice to watch in how they embrace the enthusiasm that these two share for playing up to a crowd, so intoxicating you can practically see them snorting the applause up their noses. But when treating the many musical numbers like drugs, I found myself jonesing for more whenever they didn’t have an instrument or a microphone in hand. The tragedies that befall them offstage are approached familiarly for families low on funds and high on anxiety, but with too much theatrical gel smeared all over what could’ve been the film’s most provocative aspect. Mike’s fears of relapsing are always present, with a beer in his tool chest to constantly remind him. Claire’s unfortunate car accident leads to a drug-induced haze of hallucinating the stage and a cathartic exasperation when a car nearly hits her again.

Rarely does the drama work for this film, played with as much glitz as if it were gluing too many rhinestones onto a jacket. There’s never that moment that made me feel for the plight beyond a theatrical level, with how everything is presented with a glaze of the overly dramatic. For example, there’s a scene where Claire’s surgery after the accident immediately proceeds from him holding back his crying kids to begging them for an electrical zap to his heart for his condition. The film is trying so hard to make the plight punch that it comes off too fantastical in its desperation. Kate Hudson is doing her best here with her most heartfelt deliveries and passionate scenes opposite Jackman, but she’s working with material that any actress as esteemed as her could sleepwalk through. The fact that she doesn’t is certainly a testament to her dedication to acting.

Song Sung Blue never breaks free of tired biopic hallmarks, which is oddly appropriate for a story about a band meant to replicate. One of the best scenes that encapsulates this aspect comes towards the end, as Mike tries to superglue a head wound to get one more chance in the spotlight. It won’t hold, and neither does the family drama, but this rickety framework is hastily patched together in hopes that all the worries will wash away when the music starts. It doesn’t, and all the colorful songs in the world can’t make this story feel anything more than routine. Jackman clearly has a talent for musicals, as he proved with The Greatest Showman, but, much like Song Sung Blue, he needs to find a better script that knows what to do when the lyrics aren’t coming out of his mouth.

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