Stan Laurel (Steve Coogan) and Oliver Hardy (John C. Reilly) are making their last film together in Hollywood. Laurel’s contract is about to expire, though Hardy’s is continuing. Laurel tries to get his contract renewed, but for more money this time, and is unsuccessful, so the two of them part ways for a time.
Fast forward seventeen years, and Laurel is trying to reunite them for a new career. Trying to write a script for a Robin Hood film for the two of them to do together, they go on a tour of the United Kingdom to raise funds and give audiences something to enjoy again.
Meeting theatre promoter Bernard Delfont (Rufus Jones), they are slightly disappointed that he has them performing mostly in smaller theatres to even smaller audiences, but it isn’t long before word gets out that Laurel and Hardy are back together, and soon, they are performing to sellout crowds across the UK.
Their wives, Ida Laurel (Nina Arianda) and Lucille Hardy (Shirley Henderson), meet up with them before one of their London shows, and join them on the remainder of their tour.
While this film does contain a lot of really great classic comedy, from the minds of one of the greatest comedy duos of the last 100 years, there isn’t much more to recommend about this film, sadly.
The script (by Jeff Pope) is filled with largely expository dialogue, which feels incredibly stilted and forced, not natural at all. I realise that there is a lot of information that needs to be crammed into quite a short running time (barely ninety minutes in length), but I feel it could have been handled a little better.
But the most noticeable flaw of this film is Steve Coogan’s accent. Knowing that Laurel and Hardy were Americans, it is most unsettling to hear Laurel delivering almost all his lines in Coogan’s trademark very-British accent (similar to when Kevin Costner played Robin Hood with an American accent, or when Sean Connery played a Russian submarine captain with a Scottish accent). This only serves to constantly be pulling the audience out of the reality that the filmmakers are trying to create, by reminding you that these are actors playing these roles.
John C. Reilly’s performance, however, is quite a sight to behold. He is almost unrecognisable (thanks to some incredible prosthetic make-up work), and is very different in this film from a lot of the other roles we have seen him in in the past. He emerges from this project as someone who deserves to be taken seriously as a dramatic actor, not simply an incredibly accomplished comedic actor.
The two wives are well portrayed, and have a lot of comedic banter between the two of them, too; they almost upstage Laurel and Hardy at many points. But they also have great chemistry with their respective partners, and their relationships come through very strongly.
The production design is well done, too. Taking the audience back to the 1920s, 30s and 40s, everything on screen contributes to the reality of these characters.
The score is nothing spectacular, but it is adequate.
Director John S. Baird has perhaps come to this project with a lot of ambition and ideas, but few of them are well executed enough for me to feel comfortable recommending it.
4 out of 10.
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