Stan & Ollie

England, 1953. Laurel and Hardy's Hollywood years are over. Hoping to raise money for a new film they set out on a stage tour of Britain and Ireland that will run for months. The first weeks are a disaster: empty halls, cheap hotels. Then the audiences come back. In the same period Hardy's health worsens and something unspoken for twenty years opens up between them. Jon S. Baird directed. Jeff Pope, who had worked with Steve Coogan on Philomena, wrote it. Coogan plays Stan Laurel and John C. Reilly plays Oliver Hardy. The heaviest technical work was the makeup. Mark Coulier designed the prosthetics and Jeremy Woodhead the hair and makeup. Reilly spent about three hours each morning on makeup, contact lenses, wig and fat suit, and an hour taking it off. A cooling system was built into the suit, because the heat made it impossible to sustain the calm man being played on screen. Coogan's side was smaller but built the same way: a prosthetic flattening his cleft chin, false teeth and attachments to push his ears out. Both actors wore lenses matching the eye colour of the comedians they play. Who it is for: viewers who know Laurel and Hardy and like stories about the end of a career. Who it is not for: anyone expecting comedy. This is not a film that makes you laugh but a farewell about two old men holding onto each other.