Stan & Ollie

Screenwriter Jeff Pope has always gravitated towards dramatising the lives of real people, with the Moors Murderers, Lord Lucan and Cilla Black among his previous subjects. Expat Lancashire lad Stan Laurel and Georgia-born Oliver Hardy are the focus here, and Pope picks up with the comedy duo as their fame is dwindling and they embark on a dowdy theatre tour of Britain and Ireland in the mid-1950s. Directed with affection and precision by Jon S Baird, the story begins with a knockout tracking shot at the height of the funnymen's pre-war pomp, then flashes forward. Stan and Ollie are brought to life by a note-perfect Steve Coogan and John C Reilly (in astonishing latex make-up), who re-create the dainty dance routine to At the Ball, That's All and other skits. It is a masterstroke to introduce slapstick into the lives of the two fading stars, including some business with a bell at the desk of a Newcastle hotel and an oversized trunk that bumps down some stairs. Baird uses sparing CGI to expand the scenes around real locations in Birmingham and Bristol, and when the men's wives arrive - the stern Ida (Nina Arianda from Florence Foster Jenkins) and devoted Lucille (Shirley Henderson) - the picture really fills out. Ultimately, this is a film about friendship, and for its target audience of hopeless hankerers after a simpler past, Stan & Ollie is an absolute delight.