Captures the heart, spirit, fun, cheese and most importantly the craziness of the Eurovision song contest perfectly.

Rating: 9/10 (28 June 2020)

If you are going to do a movie about the craziest and biggest song contest in the world you better do it right. That's exactly what everyone involved seemed to have done.
Made by Will Ferrell's production company and the actual organisation behind Eurovision (The European Broadcast Union) so the research into the song contest came from the right place and everything seems very accurately executed and this is not something what you normally get from music related movies I find. There are indeed recently a few exceptions along with this film such as Bohemian Rhapsody which had a show-stopping perfect executed finale. Distributed by Netflix which sadly means there will not be a physical copy of the one movie that I think many big Eurovision fans will be passionate about.
The movie has a really decent background story (with a few iffy bizarre moments to be fair - but it is Will Ferrell movie after all). However the film seems to move along exactly at the speed required and hits all the beats that it needs to leave you satisfied at the end.
The movie has the unrequited love stuff, the trying to impress a parent thing, the missing of another parent, the inspiration of those who came before (mostly the Abba part at the start), the shock of a big event changing the stakes for the protagonists, the everything seems lost scenarios (several times), the help from a surprising source and the perfect wrap up and back to normality but with the prize in the protagonists' hearts and a bright future ahead + a new start. Good ingredients!
The quiet Icelandic fishing town setting, which is perfect, is the furthest one could get away from a show such as Eurovision. The stark contrast can be seen in both audio and visual beats. The shots of Iceland are beautiful. The atmosphere of Eurovision is convincing. When Will Ferrell is back in Iceland as time is running out before the Eurovision finale that contrast works particular well making you feel frustrated inside. Iceland is a country that still has to win the Eurovision song contest (although they've managed to get to second place twice) so it was a good choice.
Tonnes of appearances of Eurovision winners and contestants as you would expect and it is great fun spotting them in the middle musical mash up. The movie didn't come across as patronising at explaining who is who at all which is what a Hollywood movie would probably do.
Will Ferrell, Rachel McAdams and Pierce Brosnan all do a great job in their roles. Special mention to the extremely passionate and aggressive "Ja Ja Ding Dong" fan. Exactly the craziness that a movie like this needs. Executed perfectly. Graham Norton gave the movie some extra gravitas and authority and as a British Eurovision fan I wouldn't have wanted that any other way.
The film has a real feel good factor about it and it is very reminiscent of (and perhaps musically in a one place also inspired by) The Greatest Showman
If you are a fan of the song contest this movie will probably be on your repeat list for a while I would have thought. I can't wait to watch the entire thing again. A good lengthy production for this type of movie I should add.
The music is of quite a high production value and the songs really capture the beats one would expect from Eurovision. We have the craziness, the extreme cheese from Russia's entry executed really well by Dan Stevens and more heartfelt songs. It all seemed convincing. There is thankfully also that one show stopping moment/song towards the end that a movie of this type needed to sell itself. Ironically it harkens exactly back to where the protagonists came from in the first place rather than where they thought they wanted to be. Yes, the movie is more clever if you think about all that a bit deeper indeed.
A really enjoyable movie, simply a top job from everyone I reckon, all-round excellent entertainment and escapism.
For me the best thing Will Ferrell has been in and since he produced this himself (after he has been in love with the Eurovision song contest for 20 years) I have to say hats off to him, really (this coming from a Eurovision song contest fan for over 30 years).
In my book this would be an Oscar contender for best movie like The Greatest Showman should have been along with classic feel good movie winners such as Chicago, Slumdog Millionaire and The Artist. But those days sadly seem over. Ironically these are the movies that the world desperately needs right now. Hopefully this will still snatch best song Oscar for Husavik next year but I'm not counting on it.
If you like Eurovision, you cannot afford to miss this, especially this year. It has totally made up for the lack of a proper song contest show... but even more so I'd say.