Martin Short knows he does not have a spotless filmography. He’s one of the first people to joke about his work in Marty: Life Is Short. For every ¡Three Amigos!, Innerspace, and Father Of The Bride, there were movies like The Santa Clause 3: The Escape Clause, a nightmarish adaptation of Alice In Wonderland from 1999, and Cross My Heart, where he first worked with Lawrence Kasdan, now a longtime family friend and director of the documentary about Short’s life. While the quality of Short’s movies varies, the amount of effort and energy he puts into a performance does not. From his earliest days on SCTV and Saturday Night Live as the nerdy Ed Grimley to his starring role in the hit Hulu series Only Murders In The Building, Short brings an enormous presence to any scene, playing the perfect foil to actors like Steve Martin, Eugene Levy, the late Catherine O’Hara, and practically anyone he interviews as Jiminy Glick, his insensitive alter ego who always asks the wrong questions.
Tracing Short’s journey from Canada to Hollywood, Marty: Life Is Short reveals much about the actor’s dedication to his craft and the long and winding road it took for him to shift from pre-med to social work to comedy. At various points, the film shows Short homing in on his performances, fine-tuning a character’s expression or accent so that it’s not so over-the-top it’s ridiculous, but that it’s zany enough that his appearance in any project slightly alters its chemistry. It’s impressive to watch the high-octane physical comedy and absurd bits Short commits to for a laugh, but it’s clear that he enjoys figuring out what makes an audience respond to his characters.
It doesn’t always work, like in the case of Clifford, where Short plays a 10-year-old with a chaotic streak that would make Dennis The Menace look mild-mannered. Short excitedly throws himself at every possible chance to annoy the grown-ups around him, including many of the critics of that time. But in his beloved turn in ¡Three Amigos!, Short is the earnest third of the trio led by a pompous Martin and a clueless foil played by Chevy Chase. He holds his own opposite these two comedy giants, proving his idiosyncratic brand of humor can be just as funny as their established screen personas. Now with over a hundred credits to his name in film and television, Short has made a career out of surviving the flops and savoring the hits, but always keeping ready for the next opportunity to get back in front of audiences. Marty: Life Is Short is an overdue appreciation of a performer who’s underestimated as a clown only because he makes being funny look so easy.
Narrated by Short, his brother Michael, colleagues like Martin, and many other famous friends, Kasdan’s documentary is full of personal stories and anecdotes about Short’s work as a performer and who he is off-screen, including many stories about his wife, Nancy Dolman, who died in 2010. Marty: Life Is Short bears some resemblance to Ron Howard’s Jim Henson: Idea Man, showing the struggles and triumphs of each film’s creative subject. Howard, an executive producer on this documentary, makes a brief cameo with Short, and is just one of the many famous faces popping up.
But the film’s real treat is its archival footage from Short’s early work and his home movies. Some of the home videos are banal slices of life, like Short narrating a storm coming in from the lake, playing with his kids out on the deck, flirting with his wife in the kitchen, or lounging by a pool with friends. Others are of the Shorts’ raucous holiday parties, like one where Sally Field climbs a piano and Andrea Martin jokes about hiring a vocal coach to perform for the occasion. There are many trips to the lakes and ocean, including one where Short reenacts the jump scene from Butch Cassidy And The Sundance Kid with Tom Hanks while Steven Spielberg films, and in another video, Goldie Hawn blows kisses to the camera Short is holding while Kurt Russell looks amused behind her.
These nostalgic moments add a heartwarming touch to Marty: Life Is Short. Part of the film’s appreciation of the performer is also of the person, the grand party host and doting family man, that the laughing audience may have never known existed. Marty: Life Is Short gives a fresh perspective on Short’s acting and all the preparation he does to give an electric––sometimes slightly unhinged––performance every time he’s in front of a crowd, whether that’s at the movies or in the living room among friends.
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