John Candy is pictured in an image from the documentary “John Candy: I Like Me.” The OSV News classification is A-III — adults. The Motion Picture Association rating is PG-13 — parents strongly cautioned. Some material may be inappropriate for children under 13. OSV News photo/Amazon MGM
At his untimely death in 1994, aged only 43, Canadian actor and comedian John Candy left behind a filmography that can only be described as a mixed bag of high-quality productions and duds. As revealed in the insightful documentary “John Candy: I Like Me” (Amazon MGM), the star’s emotional life was equally miscellaneous.
Director Colin Hanks uses interviews with family members and colleagues as well as archival photos and footage to trace Candy’s career from his youth in Ontario to his sudden demise while making a film in Mexico. Among the familiar faces appearing on screen are those of Dan Akroyd, Bill Murray, Tom Hanks (the filmmaker’s father), Eugene Levy and Martin Short.
What emerges from their heartfelt reminiscences, and those of others, is the portrait of a deeply loveable family man whose values helped him remain unwarped by fame. Yet, at the same time, Candy’s troubled childhood — his 35-year-old father died on Candy’s fifth birthday — haunted him and may have been the cause of the unhealthy lifestyle that aggravated his weight problem.
The principles that inspired Candy’s success as a husband, father and friend were shaped, at least in part, by his Catholic upbringing and education. Thus his wife, Rose, says of the young Candy, who served as an altar boy, “I grew up as a rebellious Catholic, he grew up as: ‘I’m Catholic.’”
Though Candy himself recalls the fact that he and Rose lived together before tying the knot, they did ultimately have a church wedding. And, as opening scenes show, Candy not only had a private Catholic funeral in Los Angeles but was also remembered at a later public ceremony in Toronto’s historic St. Basil’s Church.
The influence of Catholicism on Candy’s life and character is noted straightforwardly. But viewers of faith may be disappointed that it’s not examined in more detail.
On the professional side, before making a splash in Hollywood — in part through his role in 1984’s “Splash” — Candy joined the Toronto cast of the originally Chicago-based improvisational group The Second City. This led to early celebrity once the troupe launched “Second City Television” (SCTV) in 1976. NBC brought the show to stations across the U.S. beginning in 1981.
On the big screen, Candy was involved in a number of weak productions. Yet he also shone in a few far more memorable pictures, especially writer-director John Hughes’ 1987 odd-couple road movie “Planes, Trains and Automobiles” in which he co-starred with Steve Martin.
Candy demonstrated his versatility, moreover, with a convincing performance in Oliver Stone’s historically unsound but dramatically intriguing “JFK” (1991).
While this moving retrospective is not for little kids, older teens may be a different matter. Despite the presence of some age-inappropriate material, at least some parents may consider Hanks’ profile a suitable basis for a family discussion with the latter.
The film contains mature themes, a reference to premarital cohabitation, at least one use each of profanity and rough language, a couple of milder oaths and occasional crude and crass talk. The OSV News classification is A-III — adults. The Motion Picture Association rating is PG-13 — parents strongly cautioned. Some material may be inappropriate for children under 13.
