Review of Song Sung Blue (2008) by Tom A — 20 Apr 2008

Warm, heartfelt and deeply moving documentary about Mike and Claire Sardina, a blissfully happy Milwaulkee couple who are also known as Lightning and Thunder: a musical act, he as Neil Diamond and she as back-up singer and sometimes-Patsy-Cline.

We see two people who lead very happy lives (and are professionally successful, at one point sharing the stage with Eddie Vedder, who they become close friends with) and are very much in love with each other after many years of marriage; but when tragedy strikes, deep fissures erupt that must be overcome, and we start to realize they are not the happy people we thought they were.

But they will overcome insurmountable odds to keep their marriage alive and their careers afloat. It would have been easy for director Greg Kohs (who spent eight years filmming the couple, their families and their performances) to poke fun at their career as impersonators.

But they are fantastic peformers who really love what they do. Kohs also wisely reveals more and more of who these people are, and of their past, as the film progresses, rather than in the beginning of the film, so that their lives slowly grow with us as we watch the film -- the amount of trust and access he has into their lives is remarkable.

Like life, the film is at times hilarious, thrilling, upsetting and, finally, devastating.