How much you like Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga depends on how much you like Will Ferrell’s brand of comedy. If you enjoyed his work on Saturday Night Live and his films such as Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy (2004), then you’ll find yourself chuckling regularly at the silliness of this film.

If, on the other hand, you don’t care for that sort of humour, then Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga is unlikely to change your mind, even though the film’s other lead, Rachel McAdams, is just as amusing, if not funnier, than Will Ferrell.

As former James Bond Pierce Brosnan (Erick Erickssong) said in an interview, Will Ferrell is an expert at playing middle-aged men acting like children. Here, both Will Ferrell (Lars Erickssong) and Rachel McAdams (Sigrit Ericksdóttir) play adult characters who never grew up, with good comic timing.

If you like Will Ferrel’s brand of humour, Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga will have you chuckling regularly at the silliness of it all

The film is set in Húsavík, Iceland, where Lars and Sigrit make up an unpopular local band called Fire Saga. Like many Europeans, Lars has always dreamt about winning the Eurovision Song Contest. Soon, they fight for a place in the Eurovision Song Contest in the Icelandic music contest, Söngvakeppnin.

The spiritual Sigrit prays to the Huldufólk (Icelandic elves) for help. However, the two are terrible in the local competition and lose to the amazing Katiana Lindsdóttir (Demi Lovato). As luck would have it, the boat party carrying all the contestants explodes, with Lars and Sigrit watching from the shore, leaving them the winners by default.

The two small towners reach Edinburgh, Scotland, where they are quickly overawed by the big stage. They meet other singers, such as Alexander Lemtov (Dan Stevens), a Russian singer favoured to win the competition, and Mita Xenakis (Melissanthi Mahut), a Greek singer who takes a liking to Lars, much to Sigrit’s annoyance.

Overall, the story of Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga is a giant cliché. Like most such films, our heroes are initially overwhelmed by the occasion, bicker, until they overcome their differences and come together to blow everyone away with the talent they didn’t know they had. The film does subvert our expectations a little bit, but I won’t give that way.

However, the chemistry between the two leads is particularly good. Lars and Sigrit long for each other romantically but hold back because they could be related, as Lars’ father Erick slept with half the women in Iceland. The two characters are also endearing in their naivety. They are wide-eyed and excited to be in a large city, making glamorous new friends, and trying to achieve the impossible. Yes, the film can be very corny, but it’s all part of the charm.

The film also features former Eurovision stars who join in on a song. The dance numbers are hilariously cheesy — just like the actual amusingly bad performances from Eurovision.

Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga has its share of laugh-out-loud moments. One of them involves the crazy elves, while the other involves Lars bitterly bashing some American tourists with the sort of sincerity from Will Ferrell that almost can’t be faked. It almost felt like he was angrily apologising for his countrymen. I’m sure that European viewers got a real kick out of that.

Rated PG-13 for crude sexual material including full nude sculptures, some comic violent images, and language

Published in Dawn, ICON, July 12th, 2020