‘Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga': Rachel McAdams Saves This Bittersweet Comedy [Review]

In “Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga,” Will Ferrell, for the first time in his career, plays a musician, and no, his angelic vocal performance in “Step Brothers” does not count. Directed by David Dobkin (“Wedding Crashers”), this zany comedy is the kind of sentimental feel-goodery I can accept in these locked-up days of COVID, to a certain extent, of course.

In a nutshell, this ridiculous comedy is about two small-town Icelandic singers as they chase their pop star dreams at a famous European global music competition. It features a terrific, genuinely affecting performance by Rachel McAdams, who all but outshines her co-star in a role that’s filled with heart. Of course, we also get Ferrell’s ludicrous, over-the-top comedic antics, the usual-shtick from the 52-year-old actor, who always seems to play an over-the-top idiot filled with unearned confidence.

Set in a small fishing town in Iceland, Lars Erickssong (Ferrell) and Sigrit Ericksdottir (McAdams) form the pop duo, Fire Saga, their music highly influenced by the cheesy Europop of ABBA, only not as good. Lars’ mean-spirited and shitty dad (played by a bored Pierce Brosnan) would rather sonny boy stop his musical antics and work the fishing trade, but of course, Lars wants none of that.

With the dream of one day entering the famous Eurovision song contest, Fire Saga are a long way from even being a sensation at home — in fact, they are seen as a local joke, but the sweet and good-natured Sigrit, clearly pining for the affections of her bandmate, keeps urging him on to chase the dream with her. This being a Will Ferrell movie, Fire Saga, out of sheer dumb luck, is selected to enter the local Icelandic finals of Eurovision. They fail, placing last, skip the after-party and, hilariously, out of sheer dumb luck again, see the entire Icelandic Eurovision finalists blown up in a Zoolander-type of explosion, but this time in a yacht. Fire Saga is selected to represent Iceland by default.

This is when the movie starts to find its groove, in its second half, as this bizarre, tonally off film turns into the weirdest blend of silliness. Wait until you see Lars staging the big number for Fire Saga, “Double Trouble,” which includes wind machines, a hamster wheel, and an abundance of kitsch. A behind-the-scenes look at the competition presents us with the arrogant, self-involved, and possibly gay Russian singer, Alexander Lemtov (Dan Stevens, hilarious), and Greek singing goddess, Mita Xenakis (Melissanthi Mahut), who tries to get into Lars’ pants, much to the chagrin of Sigrit.

This is no doubt a messy comedy, with a surprising amount of earnestness, that tries to balance both the absurd and the sweet. That can best describe our main duo, with Lars’ bumbling idiocy and Sigrit’s humanism clashing every scene, but for some reason, it sometimes works on us. McAdams brings on the saccharine, whereas Ferrell brings the silly. There’s a weird subplot with Demi Lovato, of all people, as one of the blown-up Icelandic contestants returning as a guiding ghost for Lars.

Ultimately, “Eurovision: Song Contest,” more silly than it is funny, ends up heavily relying on McAdams, a truly underrated actress, who steals the film, outshining Ferrell, and almost relegating him to a secondary character. Being cast in such a dumb movie somehow doesn’t prevent the Canadian-born actress from being so damn convincing and emotionally attuned to her character, a talented songwriter always put to the side and ignored by her bandmate’s ballooning ego.

Co-written by Ferrell himself, ‘Eurovision’ is not as absurdist as some of the actor’s classics (“Old School,” “Anchorman”), and it could have easily turned into another dud in his recent bad streak of films (“Holmes and Watson,” “Daddy’s Home 2,” “Get Hard”), but McAdams’ believability seems to normalize, humanize in fact, the outrageousness of the entire thing. Without her, this could have easily veered into another disastrous outing for Ferrell, instead we get a decently watchable affair, one in which the jokes come with a bittersweet taste thanks to McAdams’ chemistry with Ferrell. [B-/C+]