Marty, Life Is Short

A documentary about the comedian Martin Short. The narrative begins in Canada. Short is the youngest of a large family; in his teenage years he loses first his brother, then his mother, then his father. By the time he is twenty there is nobody left at home. Then the career: the improvisation scene in Toronto, television, film and the characters he created. The second line is his private life. Short describes his forty-year marriage and the death of his wife Nancy. The question at the centre is how a person stays this cheerful after that much loss. Among those speaking are Steve Martin, Tom Hanks, Meryl Streep and people he worked with for years. Lawrence Kasdan directed; he has been Short's friend for forty years and approaches the film as a friend rather than a researcher. That is both its warmth and its limit: the hard questions are not asked. Part of the archive comes from home recordings never released before. It runs about a hundred minutes and was released on a streaming service. An enjoyable production for anyone who likes the history of comedy and warm portraits. For a viewer expecting a critical view, the film stands close to its subject and keeps no distance.