My answer is simple and blunt: Yes and no.
Yes, if you are already grounded in the protean world of Laurel and Hardy -- and no, if the retro comedy duo does not infuse your consciousness.
To those who take the trouble to express their disdain for Laurel and Hardy (and they are legion) I would recommend this movie on the merits of the two superb actors who portray Our Heroes -- Steve Coogan as Stanley, and John C. Reilly as Oliver. Their performances are confidently low key yet sparkling. If the comedy of Laurel and Hardy leaves you cold, their off-camera personalities as portrayed in this film will give you a smile, because they are played as unassuming and slightly raffish men who took the greatest pride in their craftsmanship as clowns. They took a great deal of pleasure in their work, but not always in themselves or each other. And it takes some real acting chops to get that over without a sledgehammer or hankies.
Was anyone else bothered by all the smoking that takes place in this film? I mean, it's about as drenched in nicotine as Humphrey Bogart's 'Casablanca' or 'To Have and Have Not." I nearly started wheezing from the second hand smoke myself. Such emphasis doesn't add anything to the movie -- the milieu could have been recreated just as well without the Lucky Strike Hit Parade.
At bottom, I think, this film is primarily about the twilight of clowns. At one point in the movie a skeptical woman asks the box office cashier before buying her ticket to their live performance "Who's playing them?" She cannot get it into her head that they are still alive, still active, still able to create their screen characters on stage.
You would think that more than any other people clowns could not be the ones most often to "go gentle into that good night." They definitely should be the ones to kick up a fuss, throw some pies, bring down the house rather than fade away without a furious blast. But, as 'Stan and Ollie' proves, somewhat sadly and wistfully, old clowns do go gentle into their decline -- eschewing a crotchety anarchy for whatever shreds of dignity and respect they can garner. Their pursuit of comedy at last tames them into an unseemly docility. The shadow of Till Eulenspiegel's grim fate, perhaps, lays much longer across their lives than they care to admit.
Grimaldi, Lou Jacobs, Chaplin, Laurel and Hardy, even Jerry Lewis -- they all grew quiet and reflective as the walls of old age closed in on them. The blow off, for them, amounted to little more than mundane tropes with a cup of chamomile tea.
As you mentioned to me, this may not be a film to take your kids to--unless (I would add) the kids are particularly sensitive and mature. But it sounds like a film I would enjoy: subtle, even quiet, well acted, with a sense of the complexity, nuance, and pathos of life.
ReplyDelete