Review - Eurovision Song Contest: The Story Of Fire Saga
So much potential but sadly a missed opportunity
I was really looking forward to this and to a certain degree, I think I needed it. My family and I have been really fortunate in a lot of ways over the last few months, but after Brexit, another general election, COVID-19, lockdown and the (essential) aftermath of the recent murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis, my soul really needed a fresh, silly, Will Ferrell comedy as a break for ninety minutes.
And all the signs looked good, especially with the release of the faux music video, "Volcano Man" -
But sadly, this sequence is a rare high point in a largely unfunny, bloated film with so many issues that it's almost impossible to be swept along for the ride a character comedy like this needs.
The first issue (surprisingly) is Ferrell himself, who despite great success in similar style comedies such as "Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy", "Blaze Of Glory" and "Taledega Nights: The Ballard Of Ricky Bobby", is oddly miss-cast as a middle-aged man who has wasted his life chasing his dream of one day winning the Eurovision Song Contest. It's not that Ferrell couldn't play this part in his sleep, it's that he's just so jarring within the context of the rest of the cast around him.
The main set-up of the film is that Lars (Ferrell) and Sigrit (Rachel McAdams) have grown up together as best friends and unspoken love interests with a shared passion for the Eurovision song contest and it's special brand of camp-pop. They're supposed to be the same or similar age but even though McAdams is only eleven years younger than Ferrell in real life (which is a much smaller gap than Hollywood tries to pass off in most films), Ferrell comes across as so much older that it doesn't make sense. This is compounded by casting Pierce Brosnan as Lars's father; in reality Brosnan is fourteen years older than Ferrell but he looks so much better for it as if they're characters should be the same age.
The only way around this if it's part of the joke that Ferrell is playing a character that's ten years younger. This would also add to the heightened character humour the film is shooting for, but despite Dan Stevens as Russian contest entry Alexander Lemtov, everyone else seems to be playing the comedy too straight for this to work. Rachel McAdams is fantastic as Sigrit; she's funny and charismatic and brings a level of depth and grounded reality to the role, but these comedies work best when the female support is either playing on the same absurd level as the lead (see Christina Applegate in "Anchor Man") or when they're the completely straight and real person for the lead to bounce off (see Christine Taylor in "Zoolander"). McAdams falls somewhere in the middle of these, and so as great as she is, it seems to hinder the film overall.
Issues of tone and consistency always fall with the director, David Dobkin, who is directing his first feature since the under-rated but poorly received Robert Downey Jnr drama "The Judge" in 2014. Before this, he directed hit-and-miss comedies "The Change-Up" and "Fred Claus" but his greatest success to date is arguably "Wedding Crashers" from 2005. From memory, it was the incredible chemistry between Vince Vaughn and Owen Wilson that made that film fly, and even though Ferrell and McAdams work well together and look like they're having fun, they're just not on that same level.
Another big issue with "The Story of Fire Saga" is that it keeps reminding you of other, better films you'd rather be watching. The manly, rugged disapproving father of the idiot son in a small town has almost entirely been lifted straight from Ben Stiller's "Zoolander"; the breakout musical number in the middle of the film feels a lot like "Pitch Perfect" and the rom-com formula of a stupid guy who doesn't see the beautiful women in front of him has been done so many times, this film really needed to bring the funny to make it worth while.
There's some good moments mixed in with a lot of the disappointing and odd, and there's a reason why films keep using these age old formulas (because they work).
But on the whole, "The Story Of Fire Saga" is just no where near what it could have been.
Cast Will Ferrell with Kristen Wiig or Andy Samberg with Rachel McAdams and I think you solve a lot of the problems straight away. With that casting, you either lean into fully heightened or grounded, throw in more songs like "Volcano Man" and cut out twenty minutes, and you've got yourself a really fun, sharp comedy. As it is, at least there's something new to watch after three-months of rinsing your entire Netflix library in lockdown.
Rating - 3/5
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About the Creator
Matthew Buck
Amateur film blogger! Love everything about the movies, from the stories & characters to the whole big screen experience and surround sound. You can follow me on Twitter & Instagram @matthewrbuck and visit my main site at mattbuckfilm.com
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