Marty, Life is Short: It Can Also Be Sweet, as Short Himself Proves by Example

By Karen Gordon

Rating: A-

Streaming services are commissioning celebrity documentaries by the dozen, so it seems. Built for streamlined budgets and easy viewing, many of them have been deemed hagiographies. 

But when we talk about Martin Short, there’s a case to be made for a biography about the comedian/actor feeling more like a celebration. 

The new Netflix documentary Marty, Life Is Short is a portrait of the man and the artist, that prioritizes heart and affection and doesn't pretend otherwise. And it’s not just affection for the film’s subject. Just listen to the number of times Short uses the word ‘sweet’ to describe someone. 

Martin Short and wife Nancy Dolman.

Close to the beginning there’s an exchange between Short and the film’s director Lawrence Kasdan, (The Big Chill, Body Heat), in a formal interview, where Short  says  “I guess this is where we pretend not to know each other.” 

The two are friends, so noting that from the get-go is honourable. It also resulted in a documentary that is intimate, made by someone who knows and has respect and affection for his subject, and can give us insight from that perspective. 

Short, 76 - who has had a long and successful career spanning more than five decades and counting - is a talented, incredibly versatile and beloved actor and comedian, who appears to have lived a scandal-free life on and off the stage. 

And, the film suggests, he’s done it all in a way that feels true to who he is as a creative person and simply a person.  As Tom Hanks, one of the many celebrities who are close friends, says, “Marty operates at the speed of joy”. 

Marty, Life is Short tracks Short from his upbringing in Hamilton, Ontario, the youngest of five children in a happy home, where the family encouraged comedy and performance. (Short’s brother Michael Short, who appears in the film, also moved from this warm, affectionate family to a successful career in entertainment,  as an Emmy winning comedy writer.)

It began with Short studying to be a social worker at McMaster University, when his best friend Eugene Levy persuaded his friend to come to Toronto and try his hand at theatre. Short gave himself a year, and he and Levy moved into a house together on Avenue Road, that became a hang-out for a group of young actors who would go on to SCTV and Saturday Night Live.   
Levy and Short were cast in the Toronto production of Godspell, a fortunate turn of events, not least of which because he met the woman he’d ultimately marry, Nancy Dolman, who was understudying Gilda Radner in the production. 

The two would ultimately marry and raise three children, in what, by all accounts was a tight and loving marriage that lasted until her death from cancer in 2010.  

The documentary features a lot of home movies showing them as a couple very much in sync and at ease with each other, both prioritizing family and friendships. 

Whether in Toronto, Los Angeles, or at their cottage, they’d host friends, most of them celebrities, for summer vacations, and Christmas parties. We see home movies of summer fun, with Tom Hanks, Rita Wilson, Catherine O'Hara, Andrea Martin, Steve Martin, Goldie Hawn, Kurt Russell, Steven Spielberg, and Kate Capshaw, and their kids.

Spielberg would shoot video skits, including a riff on Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid as played by Ed Grimley and Forrest Gump. He said of Short, “I think the real tell about Marty’s heart is how much my kids love Marty.”

From his break in Godspell, Short’s career moved fitfully forward. It’s interesting to hear him talk about the advantages of being a young actor in Toronto in the early ‘70s, which is interesting, given that, at the time, the city was far from the center of the universe in the entertainment industry. 

Short talks about chances he took, mistakes he made, movies that failed. When Second City opened its Toronto operation in 1973, he decided not to audition, thinking it would limit him. He ultimately felt it was a mistake, and joined Second City friends on SCTV, where he created characters, including, I must say, Ed Grimley.  

When SCTV was cancelled, he took Ed along to Saturday Night Live. But he left after a year because the show demanded too much time and kept him from his family.

Through the film, he talks about motivates him. There’s a strength of purpose to him, and a sincere confidence.

 “My career has been 80 percent failure and I think those are pretty good odds,” he says. You can have talent, you can have tenancy and take the hits. But if you don’t have the confidence to get up there and fail, then you can’t do it.“

The documentary doesn’t over-analyze his work, but his peers, including Levy, O’Hara, John Mulaney (who cast Short in his short lived sitcom), and collaborator Steve Martin (Three Amigos, Only Murders In The Building) talk about the instincts and understanding of storytelling, timing, character.  

No one declares him a comic genius, and yet, in clips of things he's done - especially his outrageous celebrity interviewer character, Jiminy Glick - we see how funny, how fast, confident and in the moment he is.

The film also touches on tough things. For such a seemingly joyful man, Short has suffered his share of tragedy. When Short was 12, his eldest brother died in a car accident. His mom died when he was 18, his father when he was 20.  HIs beloved wife Nancy died of ovarian cancer in 2010, after 30 years of marriage.  The film tells her story, and the spirited way she handled her illness, but gives Short his privacy in that and in the aftermath of her death. 

Earlier this year, Short lost two more people close to him, Catherine O’Hara died in January, and Short’s daughter Katherine died in February at the age of 42. The film ends simply with an image of the two women together. 

Marty, Life is Short is intimate and yet, keeps a certain distance from his current personal life. There isn’t a contribution from Meryl Streep, said to be his current girlfriend.  No one talks about how he’s dealing with recent losses. 

But midway through the film there is a clip of Marty talking about his philosophy about moving on from grief.  

And as is typical of the Short we see in this film, it’s smart, it’s sad, it’s sweet and it’s wise.  And based on what we’ve seen, it’s like the man himself.  

Marty, Life Is Short. Directed by Lawrence Kasdan. Featuring Martin Short, Nancy Short, Michael Short, Eugene Levy, Catherine O’Hara, Steve Martin, Andrea Martin, Tom Hanks, Steven Spielberg, and John Mulaney. Now streaming on Netflix.