Balancing out the Ferrell

Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga

Directed By: David Dobkin

I actually really enjoyed Eurovision but I must admit there was a moment mid-movie where Dan Stevens character is comforting Rachel McAdams Sigrit after a particularly humiliating moment and I thought… he should have been Lars and Ferrell should have played Lemtov.

And that would have taken care of my biggest problem with the movie.

Will Ferrell and Rachel McAdams play an Icelandic singing duo whose spent their whole lives with the dream of competing in Eurovision (well he has she’s just going along with it even though she’s clearly the more talented because for some strange reason she’s in love with him.)

Ferrell could and has played this role before (all just different versions of Buddy the Elf) and to be fair he’s less annoying here in large part I think because of McAdams and Stevens grounding him.

I still found his character wildly unlikable. I was a little put off by the age thing to- no offense to Ferrell whose doing the slow Hollywood age anyway but he still looks way older than McAdams (yet she’s the adult in the group) and you can grizzle up Pierce Brosnan all you want I didn’t buy them as father and son…

But like I said I enjoyed the music, the scenery and loved McAdams. I actually really liked Dan Stevens to as I’ve not been his biggest fan in the past.

Lars was dreadfully unlikable especially because of the relationship. Ferrell plays all these characters who I think are supposed to come off as man-children but often come off as just children and I could not understand what Sigrit saw in him. I was yelling at the screen you deserve better! Also his interaction with the American tourists was weird and off putting. I mean I get the American tourists jokes (I worked at a big tourist destination in Southern California- we made jokes about awful tourists all the time but they weren’t even that bad in the movie and Lars going vicious all the time on them was just…odd.)

Anyway my Ferrell/Lars dislike aside this movie actually had more benefits including a fun song-along and a totally killer final song that really should get some awards love. It was just a really fun little film and since Eurovision is cancelled and most of us won’t be traveling this summer anyway a nice way to spend two hours.

Recommend: Yes.

And hopefully DC or one of these endless streaming services can give McAdams a nice meaty role. Oh…I’m off to look at a list of Targaryeans… There’s got to be a good one for Regina George to play in House of the Dragon 🙂