Not nul points but it’s no Spinal Tap: Eurovision Song Contest – The Story of Fire Saga reviewed

This comedy stars Will Ferrell and Rachel McAdams as an Icelandic duo whose biggest dream is to represent their country at Eurovision and win. An open target, you would think. Spoof heaven, you would think. But while this is sporadically funny and features some wonderfully good bad songs with those hooks that you can’t shake off — like kicks to the shin, they linger for ages — it is also over-long, drifts, and is ultimately too familiar, predictable and gooey. It’s not nul points. It’s not the Norway of cinema. Particularly as it also stars Pierce Brosnan attired in Icelandic knits and Dan Stevens as the super-camp, super-vain, leather-trousered Russian entry. But it lacks the necessary focus or smarts to keep the laughs coming and sustain its running time. It’s no Spinal Tap, in other words.

The film is directed by David Dobkin (Wedding Crashers) rather than Christopher Guest, alas, and was co-written by Ferrell who had, apparently, been incubating the idea ever since 1999 when he visited his wife’s Swedish family and they turned the contest on and he found it ‘intoxicating’.Each