Picture Credit: Netflix
If your friend is making a documentary about you out of sheer sincerity, then that must be a testament to your character. For that friend to be Martin Short, it’s a testament to his character, which surpasses the many he’s played in his lengthy career. That’s what director and longtime friend Lawrence Kasdan imbues in his doc Marty, Life is Short. What could have either been seen as a vanity project or a glorified portrait is anything but. Rather, it’s a thoughtful and heartfelt celebration of one of both the underrated and beloved character actor and comedian and a grounded reflection on a man whose mantra is to find joy in despair.
The film starts off with a joke with Martin sitting down for a talking head interview with Kasdan going, “This is going to be one of those awful hatchet things that I don’t promote.” Then joking about the silliness of Kasdan and Marty having to pretend to not have a personal connection for the sake of the project. But suffice to say, their personalization tends to work in the film’s favor and, at the same time, to its detriment.
Like many prolific docs, Life is Short chronicles the 76-year-old Canadian entertainer’s expansive career. Specifically, Kasdan highlights the early half of his career. Starting out in an improv troupe, starring in the Canadian sketch show SCTV, having a short stint on SNL before tapping out during the same. Then breaking into movies with Three Amigos and Innerspace, then Broadway with The Goodbye Girl and his Tony Award winning performance in Little Me. However, he was facing a string of losses throughout his upbringing: his eldest brother, David, dying in a car accident when he was 12. His mother, Olive, died of cancer when he was 18, and then his father died shortly two years after, at the age of 20. Yet through his run, his reliance on pursuing a career and providing joy is an entertaining story to follow. Across the stories of him making iconic sketch characters from Wheel of Fortune superfan Ed Grimley to crude interviewer Jiminy Glick—it’s telling that while he aged, his charisma and comical light are so timeless.
On the positive side, Kasdan’s familiarity with other subjects adds sheer illuminating detail about the kind of impact Short had on them. Through conversations with Short’s circle of industry pals, including his SCTV peers—Eugene Levy, Andrea Martin, and the late Catherine O’Hara—to his frequent co-stars—Steve Martin—and even close friends—Tom Hanks and Steven Spielberg—you get the sense of the doc’s warranting of existence, as he is the seed of joy that keeps them as happy as the legions he’s entertained in his career.
O’Hara, for example, shared that she and her husband, Bo Welch, went to marriage counseling and pointed towards Martin and his late wife, Nancy Dolman, as a picture of health. That was met with, “I can’t tell you how many couples have told me this.” It’s with them we see many of these stars, not necessarily discussing someone they just respect but a friend that they hold near and dear to their heart. Nothing is more heartbreaking than to see O’Hara in both video footage and talking head, in her element, effervescent and comical. Her passing is pained further of by the film’s closing “In Loving Memory Of” caption, shared alongside Short’s late daughter, Katherine Elizabeth Short.
Part of the charm of Life is Short comes from the tales from Short’s star-studded pals, reflecting on the joyful memories spent with him, either via working with him on set in a project or hanging with him & Nancy at their Snug Harbor cabin in Ontario. There, they hosted family getaways either in the summer or annual Christmas celebrations. The archival footage simply highlights how his joyful, upbeat persona that delights on stage is his core off-stage. Whether it be sharing loving banter with his better half Nora or entertaining his friend’s young children, as they prefer being around him more than their mom and dad—like a non-blood-related uncle you just love to be around. It’s exceptionally endearing to not only see that his joyfulness was infectious among his friends, but also that his charisma was merely Marty being Marty. On one hand, it gives one FOMO because these are those “celebrity parties” you can only dream of attending, but also it has the same affectionate aura as a family & friend cookout.
The film also, in its core, beautifully illustrates how instrumental his late wife, Nancy Dolman, was to the actor, and perhaps his entire being. Through stories from Short and others and the footage, it was clear that they were two puzzle pieces that fit perfectly. Beyond being such cheerful performers, their marriage was the blueprint, and their love was transcendent. You can sense the intense love they all felt in their conversations through the stories and the video footage, which made her death from ovarian cancer in 2010 all the more tragic.
Even though it tries to cover most of Short’s work while Nancy was still alive, the portrait skims past his 2010s work, only staying on the surface of his grief and hardship. It’s only something you can feel, as if Kasdan said, “We don’t need to get into it if you don’t want to,” which feels more in service of the subject and his privacy than all the encompassing aspects of his life to date. Something I recalled from around the 2010s was the praise Short received in 2012 for voice acting in Madagascar 3 and Frankenweenie, his first time working following Nancy’s passing. By the time the doc hits that time frame, it’s very near wrapping up.
All in all, while conventional, Marty, Life is Short is a solid, heartfelt portrait of a showman who, through the pain of countless personal losses, continues to make ’em laugh. Seriously, @God, take all the pain this sweet, cheerful man has endured and give it to Donald Trump.
