Glitzy colourful costumes, elaborate dance routines and weird songs sung by even weirder singers. Yes, the Eurovision song contest is once again upon us. And this year I thought I’d use it as an excuse to catch up on a movie that I for some reason missed when it was released on Netflix five years ago.
Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga sees Will Ferrell and Rachel McAdams play Lars and Sigrit, two Icelandic childhood friends obsessed with Eurovision, and they’re probably not brother and sister. Despite trying, their group, Fire Saga, has yet to be picked to represent Iceland in the contest, but all of that changes when they are randomly chosen to compete against fellow Icelanders to be this years entrant.
Their performance doesn’t go well, and not only do they not win, they don’t get to go to the post show boat party with the other contestants. This turns out to be lucky, as a freak accident leaves Lars and Sigrit as the only remaining entrants. So, they’re on their way to Eurovision in Edinburgh.
Along the way their relationship is tested as Lars embraces the Eurovision experience and Sigrit falls under the spell of rival contestant Alexander Lemtov, Russia’s entrant, played by Dan Stevens in what is a scene stealing role.
Although in many ways this is your standard underdog story it avoids falling into most of the cliches that kind of story is prone to. Their fellow competitors, although having their own agendas, never look to sabotage Lars and Sigrit, in fact they are largely supportive, The reel conflict comes from closer to home, in the form of Pierce Brosnan as Lars’ disapproving Father. And in the form of the real antagonist of the piece, Victor Karlosson (Mikael Persbrandt) as a governor of the Central Bank of Iceland and member of the Icelandic Eurovision committee, he is desperate for Lars and Sigrit to fail, to save the cost of hosting the contest the following year.
Ferrell and McAdams are good together, and the relationship is sweet and innocent as they struggle with the idea of being more than friends, and Dan Stevens brings a lot of heart and conflict to a role that could easily have been just another cliched Russian character. Along the way there are appearances from some Eurovision alumni, such as Graham Norton, who gives his usual biting evaluations of the acts.
Ferrell takes on writing duties along with Harper Steele, and the humour is absurd and at times childish, with the inclusion of some weirdness involving elves and ghosts, but isn’t this what we expect from a Will Ferrell comedy. Director David Dobkin does a great job, especially with the performance set pieces, and they all manage to point out the camp silliness of the contest without mocking it. There seems to be a real fondness for the subject matter and it never becomes mean or parodic. At times it seems a little bit padded, pushing it to it’s just over two hour running time, but not to the point that it out stays its welcome.
For me the real stars of the show are the songs. With Fire Sagas “Volcano Man”, “Husavik (My Home Town)” and Lemtov’s “Lion of Love” being standouts. I would confidently expect to hear any of them performed at the actual Eurovision Song Contest.
If you haven’t seen it yet give it a watch, maybe you can make it an addition to your Eurovision watch party. And if you’re not from Europe and have no idea what any of this is about it will give you a nice insight into the wonderful nonsense that is Eurovision.
Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga is available to stream on Netflix.
