
Gray's Anatomy Premium Edition
Medical and Education
App
*** 90% OFF SALE - SHORT TIME ONLY*** 'Gray's Anatomy', the renowned classic anatomical book by...

Lyttelton's Britain: A User's Guide to the British Isles as Heard on BBC Radio's I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue
Book
The I'm Sorry I Haven't A Clue team of Barry Cryer, Graeme Garden and Tim Brooke-Taylor, in the...

Anand Wilder recommended Tea for the Tillerman by Cat Stevens in Music (curated)

Here Comes Everybody: How Change Happens When People Come Together
Book
Clay Shirky's international bestseller Here Comes Everybody: How Change Happens When People Come...

T.V. for iPad
Reference
App
The simplest, easiest to use TV guide for your iPhone and iPad. See a customized schedule for any...

Lao Keyboard For iOS6 & iOS7
Utilities and Social Networking
App
*****""Free for Limited Time ""***** # 2nd Top Paid App in Laos :) # 48 Top Paid App in Thailand in...

Dublin Buster
Navigation and Travel
App
Dublin Buster can help you find bus routes to connect two locations in Dublin, Ireland. Dublin...

LeechTunes
Music
App
Love Apple Music? Enhance the experience with LeechTunes! Add all your favourite music via Apple...
music

GlobalScout
Navigation and Productivity
App
GlobalScout the ultimate GIS tool! The hub for all your GEO data. It can handle ridiculous amounts...

Bob Mann (459 KP) rated Stan & Ollie (2018) in Movies
Sep 28, 2021
As you might guess from this, the emotional direction for the film is downwards, but not necessarily in a totally depressing way. The film depicts the duo’s tour of Laurel’s native country (he was born in Lancashire) and this has its ups as well as its downs.
Not knowing their life story, this is one where when the trailer came on I shut my eyes and plugged my ears so as to avoid spoilers: as such I will say nothing further on the details of the plot.
My wife and I were reminiscing after seeing this flick about how our parents used to crack up over the film antics of Laurel and Hardy. And they were, in their own slapstick way, very funny indeed. The film manages to recreate (impecably) some of their more famous routines and parodies others: their travel trunk gallops to the bottom of the station steps, mimicking the famous scenes with a piano from 1932’s “The Music Box”. “Do we really need that trunk” Hardy deadpans to Laurel.
The turns
There are four star turns at the heart of the film and they are John C. Reilly as Ollie; Steve Coogan as Stan; Shirley Henderson (forever to be referenced as “Moaning Myrtle”) as Ollie’s wife Lucille and Nina Arianda (so memorable as the ‘pointer outer’ in the ‘Emperor’s New Clothes’ segment of “Florence Foster Jenkins“) as Stan’s latest wife Ida.
Coogan and Reilly do an outstanding job of impersonating the comic duo. Both are simply brilliant, playing up to their public personas when visible but subtly delivering similar traits in private. Of the two, John C. Reilly’s performance is the most memorable: he IS Oliver Hardy. Not taking too much away from the other performance, but there are a few times when Coogan poked through the illusion (like a Partridge sticking its head out from a Pear Tree you might say).
Henderson and Arianda also add tremendous heart to the drama, and Arianda’s Ida in particular is hilarious. Also delivering a fabulous supporting role is Rufus Jones as the famous impressario Bernard Delfont: all smarm and Machiavellian chicanery that adds a different shape of comedy to the film.
Another Fine Mess?
Actually, no: it’s one of those pleasant and untaxing cinema experiences that older audiences in particular will really enjoy. However, the film’s far from perfect in my view: the flash-forwards/flash-backs I felt made the story bitty and disjointed; and ultimately the life story of the duo doesn’t have a huge depth of drama in it to amaze or excite, the way that 2004’s “Beyond the Sea” (the biopic of Bobby Darin) did for example. But the film never gets boring or disappoints.
I’d like to say that the script by Jeff Pope (“Philomena“) is historically accurate, but a look at the wikipedia entries for the pair show that it was far from that. Yes, the tours of the UK and Europe did happen, but over multiple years and the actual events in their lives are telescoped into a single trip for dramatic purposes. But I think the essence of the pair comes across nicely. Laurel’s wikipedia entry records a nice death-bed scene that sums up the guy:
“Minutes before his death, he told his nurse that he would not mind going skiing, and she replied that she was not aware that he was a skier. “I’m not,” said Laurel, “I’d rather be doing that than this!” A few minutes later, the nurse looked in on him again and found that he had died quietly in his armchair.”
“Stan and Ollie” has a few preview screenings before the New Year, but goes on UK general release on January 11th. Recommended.