Movies on Planes

There is something about flights between Spokane and Denver that delivers good movies. I do not know if it is the altitude, the thin mountain light out the window, or the fact that I am finally still long enough to pay attention. Whatever it is, it happens every time.

Last time it was A Complete Unknown — an outstanding portrait of Bob Dylan.

This time, settling into flight 1234 (the actual flight Number) departing Spokane, I landed on Song Sung Blue.

This film is not a Neil Diamond biopic. Diamond himself never appears as a main character. Instead, the movie revolves around a husband-and-wife duo — Mike and Claire Sardina — who performed as a Neil Diamond tribute act called Lightning & Thunder in 1990s Milwaukee. His music runs through every scene like a thread. The story, it turns out, is about much more than the music.

The Song I Heard a Hundred Times and Never Really Listened To

I have heard Soolaimon well over a hundred times. I never once stopped to find out what it meant.

The word, I learned while watching this film, is not a real word in any one language. Neil Diamond constructed it from a blend of Arabic and Hebrew — a made-up sound that reaches for something real. In context, it functions as a greeting, a blessing, a spiritual chant. Welcome. Peace be with you. Come. It is a summoning — of grace, of self-reflection, the kind of inner salvation many look to find.

Knowing this changes how you hear it. And it is central to what Song Sung Blue is actually about — not tribute bands and sequined costumes. The real subject is what music does to people when life gets hard. Many of Neil Diamond’s great songs — I Am… I Said, Shilo, Play Me — operate in this same territory: restless, searching, quietly spiritual. I wish I had looked up Soolaimon years ago.

 The Seventh Inning Stretch Problem

You have done it. So have I. You are at a baseball game, or a wedding reception, or a college football halftime, and Sweet Caroline comes on — and you sing it. Not just the melody. You sing the part: Ba! Ba! Ba! You do it with strangers. For twenty seconds, you are all in it together.

There is a moment in the film where the husband — Mike, Hugh Jackman’s character — gets fed up. He delivers a line something close to: “All anyone ever wants to hear is ‘Sweet Caroline.'” Then he says the Ba! Ba! Ba! with sarcastic weight that is equal parts funny and heartbroken.

He is right, and he is also wrong. He is right that Neil Diamond wrote music deeper and more human than any stadium singalong. He is wrong to resent the singalong — because Sweet Caroline does something that most art never manages: it creates spontaneous community between people who do not know each other. Which is remarkable.

The movie understands both sides of this argument, which is part of why it works.

 What the Movie Is Actually About

On the surface: two working-class musicians find each other, form a tribute act, go from playing Thai restaurants to performing at real venues, and achieve a small, genuine kind of fame in the Milwaukee area. Hugh Jackman and Kate Hudson have real chemistry — and both can sing, which matters more than you might expect. They are singing the songs you hear in the movie.

Underneath that: the film is about what happens when life deals you a hand you did not choose, and whether the things you love — music, partnership, the particular kind of hope that comes with performing for an audience — can carry you through it.

The title, Song Sung Blue, is not just a Neil Diamond reference. It is the movie’s thesis. The song is about sadness that transforms — about how the blues you sing can somehow lighten the blues you carry. The film earns that idea by the end.

The Verdict

Solid thumbs up. I will admit upfront that I am biased — Neil Diamond’s music has been part of my life since before I knew what a song was. John Denver is second on that list, but a distant second. The music hit me with a particular kind of feeling I was not entirely prepared for at cruising altitude.

That said, you do not need to be a Diamond fan to appreciate this film. The performances are genuine, the story has real weight, and Craig Brewer knows how to let music carry a scene without turning everything into a music video.

There is a stretch in the middle that slows down more than it needs to. I noticed it. I also looked past it because the broader movie earns the patience it asks for.

If you love Neil Diamond: watch it. If you are curious about a well-made, emotionally honest story about ordinary people and extraordinary music: also watch it.

 Where to Watch Song Sung Blue (2025)

Song Sung Blue is currently streaming on Netflix.

Some movies find you on a plane. This one found me somewhere over the Rockies, and I am glad it did.