24 years ago Father Ted Crilly and Father Dougal Maguire won a staged vote and got to represent Ireland in the Eurovision song contest. A vote that was staged in the hopes they would lose and RTE wouldn't have the foot the bill for yet another song contest they could ill afford. 24 years later Eurovision Song Contest : The Story Of Fire Saga takes the exact same premise and runs it into the ground in a deeply frustrating watch that could have been fun if it's makers hadn't been intent on dragging the life out of every single scene. Oh, and Will Ferrell.....it's time to change up or feck off mate because you haven't been funny in years.
Húsavík, 1974. Two young children hear Abba sing Waterloo at the Eurovision song contest and their destiny is set in motion. 46 years later a tragic accident sends them to Edinburgh to compete in the 2020 contest. Lars Erickssong (Will Ferrell) & Sigrit Ericksdóttir (Rachel McAdams) are Fire Saga and the world is about to experience their magic. The only downside is their stageshow is prone to disaster and the country they are representing has absolutely no faith in them.
Consider the title of this film. Eurovision Song Contest : The Story Of Fire Saga. Way too long, obvious and drawn out. Just like the movie itself. Co-writer Ferrell packs the film with incident, car chases, Americans, a pointless return to Iceland, supernatural stabbings (yes) and a subplot about Sigrit's dalliance with Russian eurovision superstar Alexander Lemtov (Dan Stevens, hilarious but in a part that could be lifted cleanly from the film without changing the ending whatsoever) and none of it's needed at all. A film like this is selling itself as light, fluffy fun and it ends up weighed down by all of it's extras. The scenes at the 90 minute mark feel like a climax and it's dismaying to find out there's 30 more minutes ahead.
It could have worked. The Eurovision itself is ripe for a pisstake and when the film has it's sights on the contest there's fun to be had. It nails the cheesy sincerity and the bombosity perfectly. A cameo leaden bit of karaoke, dismissive eurotrash dance choreographers ("Are your legs sick? Are your feet sad?), some original songs that seriously sound like the real thing and the aforementioned Dan Stevens giving it welly as a outrageously flamboyant Russian singer. All this hits the spot but then along comes Ferrell and the man-baby hissy fit schtick he's been recycling for the last 15 years and any bit of goodwill created just dissipates. It's time for him to move on to the next stage of his career. We can all see it, why can't he? Pushing things over in a rage just doesn't cut it anymore.
McAdam's deserves better than this. She has the comic timing, the range, she looks the part, her final performance is pretty affecting but Ferrell ruins all her good work. It's starting to sound petty but literally anyone else could have done a better job here. Dan Stevens as Lars and Ferrell as Lemtov would have been a genius decision and with him in the lead we could more easily forgive the many weaker moments in the film. Oh well. At least we get some nice Sigur Ros tunes. Any film set in Iceland has to at least have that.
Eurovision Song Contest : The Story Of Fire Saga is on Netflix now. Watch it when you can finally have your friends over so ye can turn it on, get drunk and leave it playing in the background.
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