Laurel and Hardy are long since dead, but the new film about them, Stan and Ollie, will convince you they remain alive and well.
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American actor John C Reilly and English actor-comedian Steve Coogan are so thoroughly convincing in their roles of Oliver Hardy and Stan Laurel respectively, that at times you forget you are not watching the real thing.
Laurel and Hardy were one of the great comedy acts of the golden age of Hollywood who dominated at the box office from the 1920s to the 1940s with a string of slapstick classics.
The British film Stan and Ollie begins with the pair at the height of their success in 1937 but there is ominous misgivings over the terms of their financial contract with the boss of Hal Roach studios.
The timeline quickly moves forward 16 years when most people thought they had retired but, down on their luck and needing the money, they embark on a gruelling music hall tour of Britain and Ireland while trying to negotiate the finance for a new film.
The pace of the film is slow at first but Reilly and Coogan draw the viewer in with the mesmering way they inhabit their characters.
Both men mastered their brief brilliantly both physically and psychologically.
The tour begins in shabby second-rate venues that are mostly empty but gradually Laurel and Hardy win their audiences over with their timeless comedy routines.
We see them on stage and behind the scenes as they deal with their personal and professional issues - and in Ollie's case - his deteroriating health.
They bicker but they also have a genuine respect and admiration for each other.
The pace of the film is initially slow but it picks up in the second half when their respective spouses come over from America.
Shirley Henderson as Lucille Hardy and Nine Arianda as Ida Laurel have a chemistry all of their own and are as as funny in their bickering ways as their husbands often stealing the show, or as one character in the film said "two funny couples for the price of one".
Stan and Ollie is a gentle and affectionate film well worth a watch.
It is now showing in Mount Isa.
3.5/5 stars.