Will Ferrell's Eurovision take hits the spot

Will Ferrell is no friend of the marketing department when it comes to titling his movies. There is no doubt that his latest Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga – henceforth referred to as Eurovision - doesn’t exactly trip off the tongue. But it is worth the effort.

There seems to be a connection with the length of the title – Elf (2003) apart – and the quality of the product. Eurovision might not rank with the sublime jawbreakers Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy (2004), or Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby (2006), but it’s up there and is one of the best movies he’s done in a while.

There are moments in this agreeably daft movie when I laughed out loud and Lord knows we could do with a bit more of that currently.

It is the story of Icelandic singing duo Fire Saga, composed of Lars Ericsksong (Ferrell) and Sigrid Ericksdottir (Rachel McAdams) – probably not his sister. They aspire to enter the Eurovision Song Contest - Lars believes they have the talent, Sigrid suspects they need the help of the invisible elves who allegedly live in their town. The reality is that they are pretty dreadful and are only invited to the Icelandic Song Contest to make up the numbers.

Fate takes a hand and in a plot twist that owes equal parts to The Producers (1967) and Hot Fuzz (2007), Fire Saga end up representing Iceland in the Eurovision Song Contest in Edinburgh.

The lazy approach would be to send the whole thing up but Ferrell, who co-wrote with Andrew Steele, is smarter than that. The Eurovision Song Contest is beyond pastiche or parody; that’s why so many people love it and enjoy watching it send itself up year after year. Ferrell embraces the campness of it all. The opening number Volcano Man would not disgrace any Eurovision final.

Everything is played for real. Whether it’s the dubious Russian baritone of Dan Stevens, the spectral presence of Demi Lovato, and of course the knowing commentary of Graham Norton, it all pays off. I don’t recall a film recently where the cast seemed to be having quite such a good time while inviting the audience to share the experience.

Lars is another of Ferrell’s benighted man-child roles and again it is funny because he plays it with absolute sincerity, similarly McAdams as the butt of many of the jokes plays her role dead straight too. The running gag about their sibling status is immaculately handled with impeccable timing. The fourth wall is never broken, there are no nods or winks to the audience, this is done with steadfast earnestness which is why, although it could do with shortening, it works, for the most part, very well.

Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga is a little over the top in places, a trait which it shares with its real-life counterpart. However as the recently deceased Joel Schumacher was fond of saying: ‘Honey, no one ever paid to see under the top.’