Factual error: At the beginning of the move Lars' family is watching Abba performing Waterloo, live. The day is, as the caption shows, April 6th, 1974. The first time Eurovision was broadcasted live in Iceland was in 1983. (00:00:10)
Factual error: During the performance by Sweden there are 7 people on stage, meaning this entry would be disqualified due to the rules of the contest which state no more than 6 people are allowed on stage.
Factual error: During the voting in the first semi final Spain, Germany, France, Italy, and the United Kingdom are listed on the scoreboard. All of these countries are, as members of Eurovision's "Big Five", automatically qualified for the finale so wouldn't compete in the semi final.
Factual error: During the semi finals of Eurovision there is no voting procedure like in the final with every single country presenting its jury vote. Instead, only the ten qualifiers for the final are named in a random order.
Factual error: The Eurovision venue supposedly in Edinburgh is the SSE Hydro, in Glasgow.
Factual error: Considering Sigrit and Lars are similar ages in the opening flashback to 1974, 41 year old Rachel McAdams should be a similar age to the 52 year old Will Ferrell, which she clearly isn't. Alternatively, if she's meant to be in her 50s, there's no way they'd have been able to have a baby together.
Suggested correction: Women *can* get pregnant, and have healthy babies, in their early 50s. There are more health risks, but it happens.
Suggested correction: Actors play older/younger characters all the time. The fact that you know their real age says nothing about the character's age. In real life, people often look older or younger (when I was in my mid - to late-30's, a lot of people wouldn't believe I was older than 25).
Considering that Sigrit is 4 or 5 years old in the 1974 flashback, she is 50 or 51 in her role in the main part of the movie. Not only is McAdams too young for the role, but also is Sigrits dream of founding a family and getting a baby quite unrealistic.
She's not too young for the role, which is the point of the correction. When I looked to see her age, I saw her pictures and guessed she was about 47 or 48, so she looks older than she really is. And there's a lot of 50+ year olds that look like they're in their 40's. Plus, the original mistake has nothing to do with a 50+ year old woman having a child.
Factual error: When the Americans are driving Lars to the contest, after spinning out, the driver puts the car in second gear (pulls the shifter back) instead of first and then speeds away from a standstill. Second gear would not sound like it did in the movie plus the acceleration would have been very weak, possibly stalling.
Factual error: A central point of the plot is Iceland not being able to host due to financial constraints. But the winning country is allowed to nominate another country to take on the hosting role if wanted.
Suggested correction: Italy has been absent from the Eurovision Song Contest for over a decade; the reason from multiple sources is reported to be the same stated here, even if not officially. Organizing the event is costly, very risky if production values are not up to standards and the return can be limited or negative - so you could say it happened in the past. It's a matter of internal politics, consider that executives may look at their own gain more than the big picture, and 'handing it over' to someone else makes someone in the business of organizing events (rather than winning them) lose face more than simply being one of the many who don't end up victorious.
