Widescreen: Six viewings later, 'Eurovision' is still a balm for the soul

We are all looking for comfort in these times, and I have found it - again and again - in "Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga," a movie I have watched at least six times since its June 26 release on Netflix.

A passion project for star Will Ferrell, "Eurovision" is a musical comedy and a loving ode to the annual event of the same name, a multinational singing competition that beat "American Idol" to the punch by 46 years. Ferrell first saw the European phenomenon while visiting his wife's family in Sweden. He fell in love, and the movie radiates with it.

Yes, "Eurovision" has its share of crude jokes and silly improvisations; it wouldn't be a Will Ferrell comedy without those things, would it? What sets it apart are three things you might not expect: It takes its subject seriously. The film's many songs, by producer Savan Kotecha and a group of songwriters, are actually good. But most importantly, "Eurovision" has a heart as big as Iceland, the country that protagonists Lars (Ferrell) and Sigrit (Rachel McAdams) call home.

The stars give nuanced performances in a film that, at first glance, seems like it shouldn't be more than a four-minute "SNL" sketch. Given a timeworn cliché of comedic film - the scene where the two leads have a falling out before a climactic reconciliation - McAdams plays it totally straight and destroys us, her voice breaking as she dismisses Ferrell and leaves the scene. She (and vocal stand-in Molly Sanden) has us soaring again in the final musical number.

"Eurovision" is the film we need right now as the world burns. It's a digital care package.

• Sean Stangland is an assistant news editor who wonders if you knew ABBA won Eurovision in 1974 ... and now he's wondering which of their songs is in your head.