Or: Lars (Will Ferrell) and the real actress (Rachel McAdams). We open in 1974 with an Icelandic nod to The Jazz Singer: only over Erick Erickssong’s (Pierce Brosnan) dead body will his son Lars be allowed to appear on the world’s largest televised singing competition. From that seed grows a typically dim-witted, featherlight comedy in which Ferrell adopts just enough of a scarecrow goggle to assure audiences that it’s not just the costumes and wig doing the acting. What can be said of director David Dobkin (The Wedding Crashers) other than that he allows his star ample room for indulgence while displaying an uncanny inability to properly time a rimshot cutaway. With two Mamma Mia! films and this to his credit, Brosnan should forever be barred from appearing in any musicals with a Nordic connection. If you are a Ferrell fan, God bless you. I don’t get it. What I do get are the raves McAdams is drawing for her infectiously winsome performance. (2020) — Scott Marks
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