Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga Review

June 27, 2020 at 2:49am
By Jason Stettner

Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga is a Netflix Original film that’s basically a comedic musical. Well, it’s a song competition so it heavily features music elements throughout the run time. It’s actually more expansive than I had anticipated, and generally a funny time. It’s got a solid plot to it, with some unique narrative points as well. There are some surprises to be had, and laughs to be enjoyed throughout. I was pleasantly surprised by it, and I feel it’ll be a nice easy going movie to watch on the odd occasion going forward.

The general story is that Lars (Will Ferrell) and Sigrit (Rachel McAdams) have always wanted to win Eurovision. Well, the former has always wanted that the most whereas that latter has always wanted Lars. Lars also has some issues with his hard to deal with father Erick (Pierce Brosnan) and other competitors during the show they’re on. It was a bit long in my opinion, and could have been cleaned up a bit length wise.

It does have some decent extra moments to it and some heartfelt ones. I did find that some of the narrative points were a tad weaker, but they don’t really drag down what’s a genuinely fun time. It’s a collection of fairly excellent original songs, and some hitting story points sprinkled within and it just works well. It’s definitely a unique perspective since the group is from Iceland, and they embrace this aspect well.

The visuals are fairly impressive throughout with large scale displays for performances, and again some great audio. I really enjoyed the various original songs in this, they nailed that aspect. On top of that, the costume work was fantastic.

They had some really unique styles in this, which is to be expected considering the type of competition they’re taking part in. I think they capture the general show well, though I’m not from Europe so I’m not entirely sure on that part. I did like the extended look at the local area of Iceland. I always enjoy seeing those types of towns.

The comedy worked well here, I found much of this to be rather humorous. As usual, McAdams is absolutely delightful and is just hilarious in this one. I also found this to be one of the better Will Ferrell performances in recent years, so that’s great. It’s also nice to see Brosnan pop in, he’s honestly not in enough movies.

The Conclusion

Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga is a solid comedy bringing some excellent original songs and a generally enjoyable story. I was surprised by the amount of depth in this, as I wasn’t expecting it to hit on that mark. It’s almost a bit of a romantic comedy quite honestly, despite the musical elements most certainly be at the forefront of what this is presenting. There is definitely some heart in this one too, alongside some great performances.

I thought the leads did very well, and this feels on par for some peak Ferrell comedy which there has been a drought of. I think they hit the mark for the most part on this one and I’ve enjoyed watching it twice already. I think there’s some good replay value in this one, and some laughs to be had for sure. It’s such a strange concept, and it just works ever so well.

Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga Review at Home with Streamed Viewing
Content Access was Provided by Netflix

Rating Overall: 7.5