Will Ferrell, who first gained a name for himself on Saturday Night Live, has been a veteran of big-screen comedies for nearly two decades, and he now returns in the Netflix movie Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga. Based around the real-life international Eurovision Song Contest, the Netflix film was written by Ferrell and Andrew Steele (Saturday Night Live) and directed by David Dobkin (Wedding Crashers). Because it's based around a music competition, Eurovision Song Contest contains some fun musical beats, but they're often at odds with the movie's comedy, and ultimately outshine much of the humor. The result is an uneven and messy movie that could - and should - have been cut down from its over two hour runtime. In Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga, Ferrell's typical schtick is on full display, but wears incredibly thin in this overlong comedy.
The movie follows Lars Erickssong (Ferrell), who, as a young boy, becomes obsessed with winning the Eurovision Song Contest, often overlooking his partner and childhood best friend, Sigrit Ericksdottir (Rachel McAdams). Thanks to luck, and perhaps a little help from the elves Sigrit believes in, their band Fire Saga gets accepted to compete to become the act representing Iceland in Eurovision. Though they botch the performance, even more luck propels Fire Saga to the international song contest. At Eurovision, Lars and Sigrit meet other international acts, including Russian performer Alexander Lemtov (Dan Stevens). But though it seems their dreams are coming true, Lars and Sigrit will have to battle their own inner demons - like Lars' insecurity from his father Erick's (Pierce Brosnan) criticisms - and it remains unclear if they'll do Iceland proud at Eurovision or fall flat on their faces.
For the most part, Eurovision Song Contest seems tailor-made to Ferrell fans who have enjoyed his outlandish comedic characters in movies for the last 20 years... because his latest is just more of the same. But while Ferrell's brand of humor hasn't seemed to change or age, comedy itself has progressed and Eurovision Song Contest already feels outdated. It features jokes that are more cringe than anything else, including one moment, played for laughs, when a female character tries to physically force Ferrell's Lars to have sex, which is exactly as tone-deaf as it sounds. There's also, for no discernable reason, a lot of jokes about Lars and Sigrit possibly being brother and sister, even though they're clearly set up to become romantically involved. It's all so banal and only makes the movie drag on, hamfisting as many of these kinds of jokes in around the already overstuffed plot and random musical numbers.
Still, the music is perhaps the biggest redeeming factor of Eurovision Song Contest, which has music from Icelandic composer Atli Örvarsson. Though the movie does feature some of Ferrell and McAdams' real singing voices, some of Sigrit's vocals are provided by Swedish singer and Junior Eurovision Song Contest performer Molly Sandén, while Stevens' are provided by Swedish singer Erik Mjönes. Additionally, though it's a complete distraction from the main story of the movie and just randomly placed partway through, Eurovision Song Contest features a music video-style performance featuring previous Eurovision singers that's probably more of a delight for those who regularly watch the real-life contest. Between these moments and Fire Saga's climactic performance, there's some fun musical beats in Eurovision Song Contest, though they aren't necessarily enough to elevate the movie as a whole.
Ultimately, Eurovision Song Contest feels unoriginal even as it tackles a song contest not well known to American audiences. This comes from a focus on Ferrell's outdated comedy. Certainly, Eurovision Song Contest feels right at home in Ferrell's early 2000s comedies, which places it at least a decade behind where other, more original fare has been venturing in recent years. Perhaps its most forward-thinking element is having McAdams play the other role in Ferrell's typical duo routine, which is often reserved for male collaborators like John C. Reilly. But with McAdams' Sigrit often pining for Lars (who's meant to be about the same age as Sigrit despite the 11-year age difference of the actors), it's not until much later in the movie that Eurovision Song Contest gives her much to do.
As a result, Eurovision Song Contest may be enjoyable for Ferrell fans - though, it does diverge enough from his early 2000s movies that it may be too different, even for them. It also may be fun for regular viewers of the real-life Eurovision Song Contest but, again, there may not be enough here for those fans to keep them entertained. Instead, Eurovision Song Contest seems crafted for the seemingly incredibly narrow center overlap of Ferrell fans and Eurovision fans. Those still stuck at home or not wanting to venture out as theaters begin to reopen may want to check out Eurovision Song Contest if they're looking for a new movie, but it's not likely to hold the viewer's attention for the full runtime. Still, audiences may find at least one enjoyable thing in Eurovision Song Contest, even if it's only that one thing.
Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga is now streaming on Netflix. It is 123 minutes long and rated PG-13 for crude sexual material including full nude sculptures, some comic violent images and language.
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