Ferrell’s nul points in Eurovision spoof
EUROVISION SONG CONTEST: THE STORY OF FIRE SAGA (Cert 15, 123mins. On Netflix from today)
AFTER spoofing figure skating in Blades Of Glory, Will Ferrell climbs into more figure-hugging outfits to poke gentle fun at Eurovision. But while the deliberately cheesy songs hit all the right notes, this time the comedy feels painfully off-key.
Ferrell stays firmly in his comfort zone to play middle-aged, Icelandic man-child Lars Erickssong who has dedicated his life to winning the camp singing contest since seeing Abba performWaterloo in 1974.
The excited little boy quickly formed a duo called Fire Saga with his besotted childhood friend Sigrit (Rachel McAdams). Every year since, they have belted out Lars’ new self-penned Song For Europe entry at their local pub.To the relief of his embarrassed fisherman father Erick (Pierce Brosnan) and the rest of the good people of Húsavík, they’ve never made it to the first round.
Then in a plot device brazenly nicked from a 1996 episode of Father Ted (itself borrowed from The Producers), Iceland’s top banker decides his nation can no longer afford to win.
As the victorious country has to pay for the following year’s event, he thinks Fire Saga is Iceland’s best hope of scoring nul points in the finals in Edinburgh. But can Lars channel his
Viking spirit to snatch victory from the jaws of ridicule?
Eurovision fanatics will probably love a sequence where Ferrell and McAdams join past winners (including Austrian drag artist ConchitaWurst) to belt out a Cher number in a Scottish castle. But while Downton Abbey’s Dan Stevens raises a couple of laughs as a naff Russian singer, Fire Saga never comes alight. McAdams tries her best but it feels like Ferrell and his three co-screenwriters barely broke sweat.
In between the song-and-dance routines, the comedy leans way too hard on silly accents and ridiculous costumes.
It’s not as dreadful as Ferrell’s Sherlock Holmes spoof but it’s only a couple of points ahead.