The chief attraction for audiences will be seeing Steve Coogan and John C. Reilly embody the titular characters. The make-up department have done an excellent job, with Reilly in particular resembling Oliver Hardy (reportedly, it took four hours in the make-up chair each day). Coogan looks less like Stan Laurel, although there is a touching sadness in his eyes that uncannily recalls the real-life Laurel.

A quick prologue takes us through the halcyon days of Laurel and Hardy’s career, touching on a prolific string of appearances in Hollywood films spanning the late 1920s through to the early 1940s. It comes to a pronounced halt when the narrative jumps to 1953. The duo has become inactive and are rightfully concerned that their career together is at a crossroad. The physicality of their comedy has become increasingly difficult for Hardy, whose health issues loom as an additional threat to the duo’s resurgence.

John C. Reilly as Oliver Hardy and Steve Coogan as Stan Laurel in Stan & Ollie (Entertainment One)

Seemingly unable to adapt to the changing trends in Hollywood, the only option open to the duo is to leave America for Britain and take their old routines on the road. An offer from English movie producer and promoter Bernard Delfont (Rufus Jones) is mooted, placing further importance on the tour to demonstrate that their fans still love them and that they remain a bankable commodity. It’s a last-ditch ploy that their partnership depends upon, both on a professional and personal level. Delfont, however, proves increasingly elusive, and the theatres and accommodation proving smaller and shabbier than they expected, the duo struggles to ignore the writing on the wall.

Trying to make an entertaining film about a pair of actors who are no longer connecting with their fans is a tricky thing. Regrettably, the scenes recreating their stage show proving no more thrilling for us than the real thing does for their dwindling houses, it’s up to the depiction of their friendship to do all the heavy lifting.

On this level, the film succeeds to a certain degree. Theirs was a complex relationship that worked in the early days, due to the two actors’ different strengths, their contrasting personae, and their loyalty towards each other. The film shows us how the burden of their failing fortunes causes a strain on those loyalties. It is the dramatic meat of the film. But once the dynamic is established it fails to gain momentum.

The film only comes alive when Stan and Ollie’s respective wives enter the frame. Forced to appear together just as often as their husbands, Lucille Hardy (Shirley Henderson) and Ida Kitaeva Laurel (Nina Arianda) generate so much easy comic relief that you find yourself wishing you were watching a film about them instead. The squeaky-voiced, mousy Henderson atypically plays the straight man this time, projecting a withering put-upon demeanour while trying to keep some semblance of decorum in the face of Ida’s self-aggrandising announcements at social functions. With a thick Russian accent and deep drawl, the American-born Arianda tackles the role with infectious glee.

Shirley Henderson as Lucille Hardy and Nina Arianda as Ida Kitaeva Laurel in Stan & Ollie (Entertainment One)

It’s not a good sign when the spouses of the leads are the funniest characters in a film, especially when the main characters are comedians. When Henderson and Arianda are off screen, the film becomes sluggish. There is simply not enough at stake dramatically.

Reilly and Coogan are both fine comic actors. It’s ironic that they don’t get to exhibit their comedic chops all that much here. They go through the motions of the old routines efficiently and do justice to their subjects. What’s more impressive is how they convey the bond between Laurel and Hardy and encapsulate their off-screen personae. There is a lovely unspoken tenderness between the two. This sweet depiction of friendship is the one thing that resonates.

On a technical level, the film is quite beautiful to look at, and the attention to period detail within the old theatre halls and function rooms is first rate.

Admirers of Laurel and Hardy will appreciate this sympathetic account of their partnership. It is a loving tribute to the comic legends. For the uninitiated, director John S. Baird’s biopic will likely prove underwhelming, both as a comedy and a drama.

Stan & Ollie, directed by John S. Baird, is in cinemas from 21 February 2019.

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