Dan Stevens

(Netflix Streaming, March 2021) At this point, it seems to be even odds that Will Ferrell (now 53) will keep playing man-child characters with poor impulse control until the end of his acting career. Despite a few welcome attempts to expand his comic repertoire, Ferrell often goes back to familiar archetypes, and his middle-aged singing dreamer in the Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga is nothing new. Taking affectionate aim at the Eurovision Song Contest (which, to be fair, owes much of its current popularity to a semi-comic sensibility already), it does boil down to a familiar arc — lovable losers asked to surpass themselves in front of a large audience and work out their personal conflicts along the way. Ferrell plays a character who should be at least twenty years younger, but that’s how the Ferrell brand of comedy rolls and will keep rolling. While Eurovision does have its moments of mirth, it’s rarely as enjoyable as during its musical numbers — the highlight being a medley performance from several past Eurovision contestants. It becomes far more laborious when it stops singing and moves through a familiar narrative without too many surprises. Rachel McAdams outshines Ferrell by playing the straight woman to his more ludicrous character and committing herself to an acting/singing performance. (She’s dubbed, but it sounds good.)  Meanwhile Dan Stevens also earns some attention with a strong supporting performance. Still, the film’s saving grace may be that it’s joyous and colourful — even as it runs through the usual Ferrell narrative, it unleashes itself when it counts, which is to say during the musical numbers. That’s probably the bare minimum expected from this film, considering its pedigree — you go into Eurovision knowing what to expect.