Stan and Ollie

seen on 14 February 2019

Jon S. Baird directs Steve Coogan as Stan Laurel and John C. Reilly as Oliver Hardy, with Shirley Henderson as Lucille Hardy, Nina Arianda as Ida Kitaeva Laurel and Rufus Jones as Bernard Delfont in an affectionate film about the comedy duo's 1953 tour of the UK and Ireland. 

After a brief prologue set in 1937, which raises the perennial issue of actors tied to the studio system that the terms of their contracts do not reflect their true worth, the rest of the film is set in 1953 when the two are working the provincial circuit in Britain before a hoped-for booking in London and the tantalising prospect of making a film about Robin Hood. Bernard Delfont is their British manager, clearly at first not expecting much from the ageing stars (they were by then in their early sixties, and Oliver Hardy not in the best of health), having booked them into second rate theatres which do not attract large audiences.

After he persuades them to make some celebrity appearances their reception becomes rapturous and a delighted Delfont is happy to book the large Lyceum theatre in London for the triumphant conclusion of the tour; by then the wives have arrived bringing with them sharper reminders of the simmering resentments stored up from the past, in particular an episode when Ollie made a film with another cmoic because his contract had not expired when Stan's was not renewed.

The two central performances are excellent, showing the pair superficially at ease with their long collaboration, still enjoying the work even though Stan obsessively works over the material and Ollie is clearly finding it all a physical strain. They rise to audience expectations apparently without too much cynicism or contempt, and Ollie constantly recognises Stan's gifts at coming up with good routines, although what they choose to perform is evidently not at all new - but it is what the audience expects. Underneath the surface there are potentially crippling resentments, but what is perhaps more unexpected is that deeper still than this is a real affection; this is quiet;y but effectively brought out by the script and the actors.

Around them 1950s Britain is evoked in its provincial down-at-heel guise, contrasted later with the luxury of the Savoy hotel in London; at the same time the fading glamour of their situation is underscored by their worn looks when off stage, and the particularly humiliating episode in which Stan tries in vain to meet the putative poducer of their Robin Hood movie, who has not even the guts to tell him to hi face that the funding has fallen through. Steve Coogan shows us a man resigned to such blows but hoping to make the best of it; the likelihood of a real break with Hardy brought on by an escalating and spiteful argument shows Stan in a less resilient light without mawkishness. John C. Reilly invests Ollie with a patient and basically genial air and a dogged professionalism which finally proves stronger than resentment, physical incapacity or medical advice. It could have been ridiculously sentimental, but in fact it seemed like a certain strength of character.

There are some scenes milked for a bit too much sentiment, but on the whole the film remains engagingly low key, with some sharp comedy behind the scenes (especially when the wives are involved, with a delicious running gag about Ida's physical fastidiousness as well as her snobbery) matched by some funny re-creations of the duo's stage acts.