Stan and Ollie

Hello everyone, I've been a bit disconnected of late. I've continued to watch movies, and I have some reviews to share. First up is "Stan and Ollie."

Stan and Ollie stars John. C Reilly as Oliver Hardy, and Steve Coogan as Stanley Laurel, best known to the world as the comic duo "Laurel and Hardy."

Laurel and Hardy were an comedy duo in the early days of Hollywood. Contemporaries of Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton, Laurel and Hardy brought their own comedic genius to their on screen personas.

Stanley Laurel played the innocent, child like character "Stan", and Oliver Hardy played the straight-man, "Ollie."

The two men could not be more opposite from one another, in genetic make-up alone. Laurel was thin and lanky, Hardy was tall and overweight. Yet together they were poetry in motion, comedic genius.

This film takes place in the 1950s, some 20-30 years after the height of their fame in motion pictures. At this point in their careers, they were doing theater tours in Scotland, Ireland, and England, performing bits from their movies for live audiences.

The film shows Laurel and Hardy as they are, the men behind the personas. Stanley Laurel wrote all of their comic bits, while Oliver Hardy had a penchant for horse racing and gambling. The film depicts the friendship between the two as uncertain-was it a friendship or merely a creative partnership?

Both John C. Reilly and Steve Coogan are wonderful in this film. They both showed such dedication to the roles. For example, Reilly had to be in make-up for 3-4 hours every day getting prosthetic pieces added to his face and chin, and getting into a fat suit.

In my mind, Steve Coogan had the harder part of the two actors. There are two performances in the role of Laurel, the verbal and non verbal physical humor. His non verbal physical humor had to be on point, and it was. His mime skills are amazing to watch, and is poetry in motion.

I cannot recommend this movie highly enough. I cannot wait to see it again. 5 stars.