Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga, review

It’s a little surprising that Will Ferrell has never made a “Eurovision Song Contest” movie before. His career is littered with roles in which he pokes fun at relatively minor sports (which Eurovision kind of is) whose small and quirky sub-cultures make for good natured goof-fests. Ice skating, NASCAR, 1970s basketball, youth soccer; to describe this new film’s plot would be to assume you’re totally unfamiliar with Ferrell’s work. Be honest, you know what you’re in for when you pull this one of the Netflix shelf.    

As is so often the case Ferrell plays a dopey loser with a big dream and a more talented teammate, who this time out is played by Rachel McAdams with a lot of bright eyed naiveté and a poor Icelandic accent (though no one else fares any better in that department). A humorously violent plot contrivance gives the duo a chance to represent Iceland at Eurovision, and what’s nice is that the movie seems to be as genuinely enthused about the annual music/weirdness festival as its leads.

As someone who has watched his fair share of Eurovision I can report that most of the songs in this are almost indistinguishable from the real thing (meaning bad, but in a fun way), and there are plenty of cameos from former contestants as well as frequent British commentator Graham Norton that give away the movies passion for the 64-year-old institution. Unfortunately this reverence keeps the comedy rather bland; I think I have laughed more at actual Eurovision’s than at this parody version.  

The lack of top tier jokes, as well as the runtime being inflated by all the songs, leaves the film feeling less sharp than Ferrell at his best, but like the real Eurovision there is enough sincere goofiness to sustain a casual watch, curled up on the sofa with a large glass of wine. Dan Stevens for example is great fun as a slimy, sexpot Russian and director David Dobkin manages to raise most of the films visuals above the usual Netflix comedy cheapness.

And that’s pretty much where the film comes to rest, just above the disposable bottom tier of Netflix originals but lacking the kind of iconic moments that keep films like Blades of Glory and Talladega Nights in the public consciousness all these years later. Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga is a nice effort, but unlike Will Ferrell’s other sports films, I’d rather watch the real thing.  


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