I’ll admit it. The “Volcano Man” music video was the sole reason why I watched Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga. It was quirky enough to catch my attention, and the commitment of stars Will Ferrell and Rachel McAdams to their performance made me very curious to watch it.
Lars Erickssong (Ferrell) is a middle aged man from Húsavík, Iceland whose only dream is to win the Eurovision Song Contest, a dream happily enabled by friend and Fire Saga bandmate Sigrit Ericksdóttir (McAdams). Despite the disappointment of his father Erick Erickssong (Pierce Brosnan) and the dismissive attitude towards him by the townspeople, a strange turn of events lead to the two entering the contest’s semifinals.
I think we all know what to expect from a Will Ferrell comedy film. The commitment to the character, accent and exaggerated physicality included, and the silly comedy that you just go along with or else you lose out on the enjoyment. And both are plenty in this film, with costars McAdams and Dan Stevens, who plays favored-to-win Russian contestant Alexander Lemtov matching Will’s energy in their role portrayals, no matter how silly, albeit correct, their accents sound.
If you’re looking for a satirical take on the famed song contest, however, you won’t get that here. Firstly, it’s kind of hard to make a satire out of something that’s as flamboyant as the Eurovision Song Contest, where performances such as the one featured in Volcano Man and Lemtov’s Lion of Love are par on course for what you can watch on any given year. The jabs at the hosts’s awkwardness or the exaggerated honesty of the Icelandic selection committee members are the most you’ll get. The whole point of the film is to laugh at the obvious silliness of it all, but there’s a more sedate narrative running throughout the film.
I was surprised to find that, despite the silliness and the ostentatious performances, there’s a sweet and sincere core in the story featured in Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga. It’s a love letter to a contest that gives you license to dream as big as you can. Lars might be an unlikely superstar, but it’s not ridiculous to get on board with his journey, nor with Sigrit’s dream of being recognized by Lars as somebody other than a bandmate, nor with Lemtov’s struggles to keep his true self hidden. While the humor might be marginally less ebullient compared to other Ferrell films, I appreciated that it’s tempered down to balance out the expansiveness of their rockstar dreams.
I still hold Casa de Mi Padre as my favorite Will Ferrell film, but I will hold a special place for the flamboyant stage performances and murderous elves of Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga in my heart.
Happy viewing!
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