Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga

Starring: Will Ferrell, Rachel McAdams, Dan Stevens, Pierce Brosnan, Ólafur Darri Ólafsson, Jóhannes Haukur Jóhannesson

Director: David Dobkin

Aspiring musicians Lars (Will Ferrell) and childhood friend Sigrit (Rachel McAdams) have had the goal of winning the International sensation Eurovision Song Contest since they were twelve. Much to the chagrin of Lars's father Erick (Pierce Brosnan), they form the band Fire Saga and play in their small town of Husavik, hoping to one day achieve their dream. Their chance comes after their home country of Iceland needs a 12th entry to compete against sure thing Katiana (Demi Lovato) and they are randomly selected. Despite a disastrous performance, they get to represent Iceland when a boat carrying all 11 other contestants explodes. Fearing massive embarrassment, the Icelandic committee sends consultants to help Fire Saga's chances. As the rehearsals begin Sigrit finds it harder to keep her feelings from Lars, who fears anything romantic will destroy the group. Further complicating matters, the duo finds a rival in Russian Alexander Lemtov (Dan Stevens), who is heavily favored to win and will stop at nothing to sabotage them. Can Lars and Sigrit pull it together and defy the odds to win Eurovision and achieve their dream?

Will Ferrell is an acquired taste. While I generally find him funny, he does have a lot of hits and misses in his filmography. This is one of his better efforts, which he helped co-write, despite it being overlong and unnecessarily complicated.

I greatly enjoy the Pitch Perfect movies and this movie owes a lot to that. That's not necessarily a bad thing, as there is an energetic "Song Along" where everyone sings pop songs as well as many visually exciting musical performances. The original songs aren't bad and quite catchy. I will not be able to stop laughing at Pierce Brosnan singing along to a song called "Ja Ja Ding Dong" for a while. There is even a comedic commentator, played here by a scene stealing Graham Norton, who gives hilarious insights into the competition.

While Ferrell is funny, the movie owes a lot to Rachel McAdams and Dan Stevens. McAdams' winning performance here as Sigrit is the best she has been outside of Game Night and carving herself a fantastic comedic career. She brings much needed heart to the movie and it wouldn't work as well without her. Ditto to Stevens, whose closeted Russian singer is the closest thing the movie has to a villain. But it's not even really a villainous performance and he is able to still be likable and sympathetic while showing off his singing voice in the process. The movie is worth seeing for them alone.

As I said, the biggest issue is the movie is too long. It takes way too long to get to the actual part of Eurovision where they perform, causing the middle part of the film to drag. This could have been 15-20 minutes shorter and not been any less funny.

It's dumb and too long but I laughed and was entertained so not a bad way to spend a night in.

Grade: B

Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga is available on Netflix