The News Herald (Willoughby, OH)
A song of Iceland and Fire
‘Eurovision’ has appealing duo of Will Ferrell and Rachel McAdams but can’t quite get in tune
Apparently, many of us in the United States have not grasped what a huge deal the annual Eurovision Song Contest is for much of the rest of the world. ¶ That’s if we even knew what it was. ¶ Well, Netflix subscribers are about to get a crash course, if one that’s likely not entirely factual. ¶ The competition — in which musical acts from roughly 50 countries try to ride one original song all the way to the championship — is the backdrop for a new comedy starring, co-written and produced by Will Ferrell. ¶ Unsurprisingly, Ferrell offers up his typical brand of outrageous hilarity for stretches in “Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga” — a movie that was to have been released in May to coincide with the since-canceled 65th edition of Eurovision but is landing on Netflix this week. ¶ Unfortunately, though, those funny stretches are too few and far between, the viewer really needing to adore the music-filled backdrop of this romp to get the most out of it. Given that it co-stars Rachel McAdams and is helmed by David Dobkin — the director of her hilarious 2005 hit comedy “Wedding Crashers,” in which Ferrell has a memorable cameo — you’d expect something a bit closer to pitch-perfect with “Eurovision.” We meet Ferrell’s Lars Erickssong and McAdams’ Sigrit Ericksdottir when they are children in April 1974, as folks in the small town of Husavik, Iceland, have crammed into one home to watch Eurovision. Lars becomes entranced hearing and seeing Abba perform “Waterloo,” and his resulting dancing starts to bring the reserved Sigrit out of her shell. Less impressed by the boy’s merriment is Lars’ gruff fisherman father, Erick Erickssong (an underused Pierce Brosnan).
Ferrell and McAdams are an appealing duo, so there’s some fun in chumming around with Lars and Sigrit, be it in Iceland or the UK, both actual locations of the shoot.
Dobkin then cuts to present day, to what appears to be an elaborate music video for “Volcano Man” — a song by Lars and Sigrit’s band, Fire Saga — complete with a rocky landscape, ice and waterfalls, as well as the long-haired Lars and the beautiful Sigrit lavishishly outfitted. (It’s hysterical and is “Eurovision” at its best.) In reality, the duo is performing the song on keyboards in the basement of the Erickssong home, with Erick soon descending the stairs to yell at Lars about electricity use. Lars, who scrapes by issuing parking tickets in the town of 3,000, is singularly focused on Fire Saga being selected for Eurovision. And while Sigrit, a music teacher, would like that, too, her adoring focus is on the seemingly oblivious Lars. Although the country’s best shot at Eurovision glory obviously is goldenvoiced pop princess Katiana (singer-actress Demi Lovato), Fire Saga does score an invite to the big dance in Edinburgh, Scotland, and soon sees its odds of winning improve greatly thanks to a series of otherwise-unfortunate events. (It’s possible Sigrit’s plea for help from the Huldufolk — fabled hidden elves of Iceland — has resulted in overly dramatic results.) At the competition, the fish-out-of-water Lars and Sigrit are befriended by the more-worldly Alexander Lemtov (Dan Stevens, “Legion,” “The Call of the Wild”), a Russian star who takes an immediate interest in Sigrit, and Mita Xenakis (Melissanthi Mahut), a Greek performer who tries to get somewhere with Lars. While these outsiders help along a wedge already forming between Lars and Sigrit, the bigger problem is the former’s ambition and lack of consideration for his partner. He makes important decisions without her, at times not telling her about them until they are on stage. It shouldn’t come as a shock that their performances tend to run off the rails. Co-written by Andrew Steele — a writer on “Saturday Night Live” when Ferrell was becoming famous for his comedic abilities on the sketch-comedy staple — “Eurovision” succeeds in making some loving fun out of its namesake contest. While Ferrell long had been familiar with Eurovisions from time spent in his wife’s home country of Sweden and thought it would make a great backdrop for a movie, Steele knew little about it. To prepare for the film, the filmmaking team ventured to Copenhagen for the finals in 2014 and to Portugal four years later to experience more of the contest. While it feels as though they likely captured plenty of the flavor of the affair — they even got Graham Norton, who works as a commentator on the BBC television broadcast, to portray himself — they simply don’t pack the two-hour movie with nearly enough laughout-loud moments. Maybe it’s just the long title, but it feels as though Ferrell is trying to recapture the magic of hits such as 2004’s “Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy” and 2006’s “Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby,” but “Eurovision” is not in the class of those movies — especially “Anchorman.” Still, Ferrell and McAdams (“Spotlight,” “Game Night”) are an appealing duo, so there’s some fun in chumming around with Lars and Sigrit, be it in Iceland or the UK, both actual locations of the shoot. By the way, while Ferrell does his own singing, his performances recalling many an old “SNL” musical sketch, Sigrit’s voice is a varying mixture of McAdams’ and that of Swedish pop singer Molly Sanden. That combination works really well. If only “Eurovision” as a whole were so harmonious.