Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga

Um...sure, okay

Will Ferrell and Rachel McAdams in Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga (2020)

While watching this film I kept thinking to myself, I have no idea what I’m watching. Having seen the film twice now, I’m definitely not mad at it, but I am still not entirely sure what I saw.

The details of a film’s star rating in this blog generally go as follows:

3 Stars for beginning, middle, and end of the story

Star for casting/acting

Star for everything else- cinematography, soundtrack, etc.

Bonus Star 1- for marketing, release date, etc.

Bonus Star 2- for storyline fitting in with prequels/sequels, end credit scenes, etc.

If you would like to see a more detailed outline of how a film’s rating is created by me, there is a blog post on my dedicated page to just that. Also, I don’t do spoilers. I won’t mention any major plot twists or endings but I will hint at things and mention scenes that don’t give away any of those major points.

Let’s get into it.

Beginning: Full star here for nicely setting up the two main characters, Lars and Sigrit, and the main conflict points of the film. Eurovision (2020) is your typical Will Ferrel comedy - awkward but funny, nice to watch. My only issue with the beginning is that it is insanely obvious from the get-go who the villain is. The boat thing was...unexpected...but at this point I was feeling okay. But it all gets weirder from here. Also, if you’re like me you immediately googled whether or not it was Rachel McAdams singing. Click here for an article I enjoyed reading about that.

Middle: Half star. I could not get past the abundance of sexual jokes. At some point, they aren’t funny anymore (or even awkward-funny) but just distract from the storylines. I enjoyed that the creators took the initiative to add in actual contestants from past Eurovision contests for the Song-A-Long scene, but it was shot in a very strange way. They switched from shooting it like a normal film scene to performance-style and I was not a fan of that. It felt like a fourth-wall break that was executed poorly.

Sigrit telling Lars off was the only conversation in the whole movie that felt real and not like some weird dream. Sigrit is way too good for Lars, and maybe this whole movie. Then, Lars goes off and talks to his own reflection, and it was back to strange. The switches from dramatic plot to parody plot happened too often for me to keep up with. I did enjoy the scenes where they called out American tourists for being awful, more movies should do that. But the ghost...completely unnecessary. It seemed like a waste of VFX money to me. It was the scene after the ghost, that made me feel something real for the characters for the first time. I have never felt so sad to hear someone get laughed at in a movie.

End: Full Star. Okay, I’ll say this - I really liked the elves situation. It was the only part of the movie that I laughed out loud at. However, the villain storyline was spread so far out and thin that when it wrapped up so quickly it felt like it didn’t belong in the storyline at all. What is the point of writing, casting, budgeting, costuming, etc. for a villain character who you only see being villainous for 30-seconds? Especially when you already have another contestant-character causing problems. The main end-point that I enjoyed and where the “full” star really stems from was Sigrit’s end song. It was a beautiful song that paid homage to the character, her relationships, and her hometown.

Casting/Acting: Half Star. One of the first things I did after watching Eurovision (2020) the first time was look up who, if anyone, was from the country they sang for. I found that the majority of the cast members do have ties to the countries they represented. However, the three main characters - Lars, Sigrit, Alexander, were not. I understand that this was a parody and that having the majority of characters represented as I mentioned above is a great stride compared to past films. In being a parody though, I wish they had made a comment about Americans portraying foreigners (or Canadian in McAdams’s case). After all, they already made comments about American tourists. I did feel that the acting overall was great. My dad and I watch Will Ferrell movies at least once a month together and I love his work. Rachel McAdams is one of my all-time favorite actresses. I also enjoyed seeing Pierce Brosnan and Dan Stevens in comedy roles. I will say there was a missed opportunity to have Pierce Brosnan sing, bring back some Mama Mia (2008) action.

Everything Else: Full Star. The songs throughout were good and the singers were great. The costumes were true to the actual contest, or so I have read. Will Ferrell, Rachel McAdams, and Pierce Brosnans’ accents actually didn’t bug me.

Bonus 1: Half Star. Netflix is the only place this movie would have performed well. The release date was fine. It has come out at a good quarantine-film time.

Bonus 2: No Star.

Overall: I understand that this movie was meant to be a parody of the actual Eurovision song contest. Maybe the reason I didn’t feel it play well on screen is because I do not follow the actual competition. However, I feel that the main reason this movie was so off putting to me is because it didn’t pick one genre and stick to it.

Eurovision (2020) tried to blend drama and character growth with awkward comedy and it didn’t work well. It switched back and forth too often without really delving into one or the other for an extended amount of time.

So let me know:

What was your favorite song of the movie?

Do you keep up with the Eurovision contest?

Do you enjoy musical-type movies?

#Eurovision #TheStoryofFireSaga #ParodyFilm #WillFerrell #RachelMcAdams #DanStevens #PierceBrosnan #NetflixFilm #NetflixOriginal