SONG SUNG BLUE

Here's the call: this is a four-star film about a real husband-and-wife tribute band that finds God, love, and grief in Neil Diamond's songbook — and it earns nearly every bit of the praise it's after. The musical numbers mine real spiritual and emotional weight from Diamond's catalog, gospel undertones and all. Hugh Jackman is dependably strong, and Kate Hudson turns in one of the best female performances in years, earning a Golden Globe nomination.

But this one calls for extreme caution, and for real reasons: strong profanity that includes God's and Jesus's names taken in vain, a scene of teen marijuana use, and a story that walks through addiction, a devastating injury, and depression without flinching. None of it is here to titillate — the true story includes it — but it does mean this isn't a movie for younger eyes.

If you're an adult who wants a musical drama that takes faith, marriage, and suffering seriously, this is one of the year's better options. If you're picking for the whole family, this isn't it.

Milwaukee, 1988. Mike Sardina, a mechanic and Elvis-and-Neil-Diamond impersonator, meets Claire, a hairdresser who does a mean Patsy Cline, on the state fair circuit. Both divorced, both in love with music, they start a Neil Diamond tribute band they call Lightning & Thunder — Mike insists he's not an impersonator, he's an "interpreter." The band struggles to find its audience, from a rowdy biker bar to eventually opening for Pearl Jam. Then, on an ordinary day in their front yard, everything changes.

Four stars means Movieguide found this one near the top of its class this year, and the film earns it. The musical sequences do real work — they lean into the spiritual and romantic undercurrents already present in Neil Diamond's songwriting, gospel harmonies and all, so the numbers feel like worship as much as nostalgia. Hugh Jackman is reliably excellent, but Kate Hudson is the film's real discovery, delivering one of the best female performances in years and earning a Golden Globe nomination for it.

One honest caveat: Jackman and Hudson play their real-life counterparts as considerably more glamorous than the actual Mike and Claire Sardina, which softens the film's grip on its own true-story realism. It's a small cost against scenes this joyous and this emotionally powerful.

At its heart, this is a strongly Christian, moral film. Movieguide's own worldview notes describe it as carrying positive references to God, faith, prayer, true love, holy matrimony, and family — and the musical numbers do real work here, since Neil Diamond's songs already braid love for God and love for a woman together, often over gospel-tinged arrangements. The film leans into that, and the result is some of the most joyous, most powerful scenes of faith and married love you'll find in a theater this year.

It doesn't shy away from real brokenness either — addiction, grief, a marriage tested by a hidden illness and a devastating injury. The film treats these honestly rather than glamorizing them, even as it leaves in the profanity, including abuses of God's name and Jesus's name, that keep this from being a film for younger viewers.

One caution for viewers who know the true story: the real Mike and Claire Sardina were, by most accounts, more ordinary than the movie-star faces cast to play them. That's a choice worth naming, even if it doesn't undo what the film gets right.

What this story ultimately offers is a picture of love that survives loss — a marriage that holds even when a body and a mind are broken. Scripture makes the same promise in starker terms: "The LORD is near to the brokenhearted and saves the crushed in spirit" (Psalm 34:18).

This is a film that takes faith, marriage, and suffering seriously, set to some of Neil Diamond's finest songs — and it earns its four stars. But the strong language and mature content mean it's not one to watch with your kids. Our answer stands: WORTH THE TRIP — ADULTS ONLY. Planning family movie night instead? Start with our latest family-friendly picks.