Reel Rundown: ‘Marty, Life is Short’ shows dance with grief and humor in documentary feature

Grief is a personal experience. How we react to it depends on how we view the experience of life itself. Just ask the comic actor Martin Short.

By his early 20s, Short – who is now 76 – had endured the deaths not only of his older brother David but both his parents. In 2010, his wife of 36 years, Nancy Dolman, died from ovarian cancer. And then earlier this year, his daughter Katherine died by suicide.

Much of this is covered in the Netflix documentary feature “Marty, Life Is Short.” Directed by the filmmaker (and longtime family friend) Lawrence Kasdan, the film details Short’s life and career in a way only a close friend could.

Kasdan is the veteran writer-director of such films as “The Big Chill” and “Silverado,” plus co-writer of “Raiders of the Lost Ark” and “Wyatt Earp.” What he explores in his documentary is the notion that through the losses and career failures Short has experienced, he still faces life with a smile.

This way of being is possible, Short explains, because his family life was always filled with laughter – even in the saddest moments.

In an interview with the New York Times, Short recalled a moment when his mother was dying. He sat across from his brother Michael and, he said, “We looked at each other and started laughing. It was like: How absurd, how ridiculous, how dark can this be?”

Born in the Canadian city of Hamilton, Ontario, Short was the youngest of five children. He attended university to study social work. Always interested in performing, though, he moved to Toronto and was soon cast in commercials.

His big break came when he joined a theatrical production of “Godspell.” It was in that show that Short met several future acting and comedy stars, including future “SCTV” stars Eugene Levy, Andrea Martin and Dave Thomas.

He also met, and dated, the future “Saturday Night Live” cast member Gilda Radner. But it was Radner’s understudy, Nancy Dolman, whom he ended up marrying.

Considering his late-life partnership with Steve Martin – his co-star in the Netflix series “Only Murders in the Building” – it’s hard to believe Short’s career has been anything but a long string of successes. But he did endure failures, especially during the post-“Godspell” era when he tried to become a typical song-and-dance performer.

It was Levy, among others, who convinced him to pursue his inherent talent for comedy. And stints at Second City, “SCTV,” “Saturday Night Live” and movies such as “Three Amigos” followed. Kasdan takes pains to show how Short developed his various characters – especially the irrepressible nerd Ed Grimley.

Still, Short stresses, “Show business is talent, luck, and endurance.” As he tells Kasdan, “(Y)ou can have talent, you can have tenacity, you can take the hits, but if you don’t have the confidence to get up there and fail, then you can’t do it.”

Kasdan fills his film with interviews of such longtime Short friends as Levy, Martin and his late “SCTV” castmate Catherine O’Hara. But some of the best moments come during the various dinner parties he and Dolman held with such celebrities as Tom Hanks, Steven Spielberg and Kasdan himself.

One entertaining sequence features Hanks impersonating the character of Forrest Gump and Short the character of Grimley as the two recreate the famous cliff-jumping scene from “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid” – only off a boat.

“Marty, Life Is Short” is upbeat throughout. Always, though, Kasdan returns to the topic of grief. The documentary, in fact, is dedicated to O’Hara and to Short’s daughter Katherine, whose suicide came shortly after the film was finished.

Sensitive to Short’s feelings, Kasdan suggested postponing the film’s release to spare his friend. But Short said no.

“My instinct was the opposite,” he said. “I think we proceed. We must figure a way to survive through grief without denying it or without, in any way, undermining its importance.”