Stan & Ollie is a fine biopic that warms the heart and is capable of conjuring up some nostalgia and some tears.
Stan & Ollie
1:37 minutes
Entertainment One / BBC Films / Sonesta Films and Fable Pictures
Director: Jon S. Baird
Writer: Jeff Pope
Stars: John C. Reilly, Steve Coogan, Shirley Henderson, Nina Arianda
Music: Rolfe Kent
Stan & Ollie is a fine biopic that warms the heart and is quite capable of conjuring up some nostalgia and some tears.
Stan & Ollie
1:37 minutes
Entertainment One / BBC Films / Sonesta Films and Fable Pictures
Director: Jon S. Baird
Writer: Jeff Pope
Stars: John C. Reilly, Steve Coogan, Shirley Henderson, Nina Arianda
Music: Rolfe Kent
If you’re a Laurel and Hardy fan (and if you’re not, you should be), the trailers for the first biopic about the boys, might have had you worried. I know that I was concerned – the trailer for Stan & Ollie seemed to be hinting at a troubled and rocky partnership between the two legendary comedians - and while that certainly has been the truth behind the scenes of some well-known comedy teams, dedicated Laurel and Hardy fans knew that there was a genuine affection between these two men. Of course, the movie industry loves drama and is not above playing around with the facts to achieve it. Fortunately, though they might have edited-up the drama for the trailers I’m happy to say that Stan & Ollie is in fact an affectionate and endearing look at the late stages of the career of one of the most beloved and enduring comedy teams of all time.
The film starts in 1937 with a beautifully-done tracking shot of the boys walking through the back-lots of Hal Roach Studios on their way to the sound-stage where the iconic dance scene for “Way Out West” is being filmed. Stan Laurel (portrayed with balance, believability, and careful nuance by Steve Coogan) and Oliver Hardy (John C. Reilly, astonishingly transformed into the well-known silhouette of ‘Babe’) by this time are a successful money-making team for the studio. We quickly learn that Roach’s ‘Lot of Fun,’ as it was nick-named, wasn’t so much fun at the time for Stan, who realized that the funnymen themselves weren’t getting a very big piece of the pie. Laurel’s protests about the team’s financial treatment leads to his being fired while Hardy, who still was under contract for a year to the studio, was cast by Roach in a comedy with another studio comic, Harry Langdon – a situation that had much to do with that aforementioned drama in the trailers….
Fast-forward sixteen years to 1953 as Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy, well past the golden years of the Hal Roach studio shorts, are about to embark on a stage-show tour of the United Kingdom and Ireland. Not only was the purpose to raise some much-needed personal income, but Stan was hoping to increase interest and funding for a proposed Robin Hood-themed Laurel and Hardy come-back film.
Much water has passed under the bridge in the intervening years but the team still has magic onstage – so much so that the crowds eventually outgrow the small venues that were booked and things seem to be looking up for the proposed film funding.
Lucille Hardy and Ida Laurel, the boys’ wives, join them in London - each looking out for the best interests of their respective spouses. Lucille (Shirley Henderson) watches over her rotund husband, making sure that Ollie isn’t pushed past what his health issues will endure, and Ida (Nina Arianda) keeps a defensive posture over Stan, making sure that he’s getting the respect he deserves. Eventually, we find out that the proposed film deal has not worked out (“It seems like people aren’t interested in Laurel and Hardy films anymore,” sighs Stan). Along with this revelation, the boys revisit their mutual hurts over ‘that elephant movie’ that Hal Roach had Oliver make with Langdon instead of Laurel. Shortly after that, Ollie has a health crisis and announces to Stan that he’s retiring. Facing the prospect of carrying on the remaining stage performances with a substitute comedian, Stan realizes that the magic is only between himself and his long-time partner, and cancels what would have been the first Laurel and no-Hardy performance. In a very touching scene, the two comedians reconcile and agree to continue on together. The spat was temporary - but the mutual affection, respect and love that the two man had for each other is the real overriding message of this story.
Reilly and Coogan tread the fine line between imitation and performance and come out as winners, quickly becoming the two legends quite convincingly. The physical aspects of the actors match the men they portray well enough for the viewer to forget that they’re watching actors at all. The prosthetics used to transform Reilly’s appearance never get in the way of the story or the acting and, in fact, are quite invisible – even in close-up. Both actors have also managed to recreate the sound of their respective character’s voices in intonation, accent, and timbre. Shirley Henderson does a fine job as Lucille Hardy, although her vocal delivery is a little hard to adjust to at first. Her performance truly grows throughout the film as she begins almost as a caricature but ends up as a loving, caring wife and caretaker of her beloved Oliver. Nina Arianda provides some subtle comic relief as the spitfire of the two women, her Russian (?) accent and tales of past film glory provoked more than a few laughs in the theater. As was hinted at in the film, with the wives you get two teams for the price of one.
Laurel and Hardy fans, you will not be disappointed! With good acting all around, a competent and unobtrusive score, solid recreations of several Laurel and Hardy routines, and a story that ultimately establishes what the fans already know – that these two comic geniuses had a mutual love and respect for one another – Stan & Ollie is a fine biopic that warms the heart and is quite capable of conjuring up some nostalgia and some tears. I’m ready now for another film that will show how the whole thing started…
Bert Saraco
