Stan & Ollie (2019)

Laurel and Hardy were long before my time, but even with seeing old films I can't honestly say I ever appreciated them. So when a film was coming out about their life, I had to muster up the energy to see it. That paired with the fact that I never really enjoy Steven Coogan's work. The saving grace for the films is I love watching John C. Reilly so at least there was that.

I imagine I am not the only one for whom the story of Laurel and Hardy isn't in high demand. The film needed to find some way to make us care but after finally seeing it I'm not sure it did. The film picks up their story late in their careers. They are already waning and the world is ready to move on. They are already nostalgia and their contemporaries, Chaplin or Abbot and Costello, had easily eclipsed them. So why should we care? The film never makes a strong case. It neither shows us what made their act great or worthy of remembering, nor show us who they were as persons to make us care.

About half way through Stan & Ollie I asked myself what was I learning about their character, their humanity and I couldn't answer the question. Each is portrayed as rather 2 dimensional average blokes with very little to invest me in who they were. The film crafts this as a bit of a tragedy but never offers us anything to feel emotionally invested in. The side plot of their bickering wives felt tacked on. Generally Stan & Ollie just felt rather forgettable and for a movie that purports to make us remember celebrities we may have forgotten that's a rather risky approach.

Stan & Ollie
Starring: Steve Coogan, John C. Reilly, Shirley Henderson, Danny Huston, Nina Arianda
Director: John S. Baird
Writer: Jeff Pope