Heartfelt doc looks at comedy superstar lost too soon

TORONTO — Early in the emotional new documentary “John Candy: I Like Me,” which had its world premiere Thursday night at the Toronto International Film Festival, actor Bill Murray sums up the loving movie well.

“I wish I had some bad things to say about him,” says Candy’s friend and “Stripes” co-star.

From start to finish, there’s not an ugly word flung at the comedy genius, who died in 1994 at the young age of 43. 

Rather than that being evasive, however, the heartfelt approach feels right and honest. Directed by Colin Hanks, “I Like Me” portrays Candy as a hardworking family man driven, in no small part, by a tick-tock feeling that his life would be cut short.

“I seem to recall him saying, ‘I don’t know if I’m going to make it past 35,” his friend Eugene Levy says in the doc. 

It is plainly obvious that his famous pals interviewed in the movie, such as Dan Akroyd, Tom Hanks, Macaulay Culkin, Martin Short, Steve Martin, Catherine O’Hara and Andrea Martin, still feel the sting of Candy’s death 31 years later. Eyes are wet for memories both happy and hard.

The same is true, of course, of his two children. 

“We loved our dad,” said his daughter Jennifer onstage, standing next to her brother Christopher, as she introduced the premiere. “And we know you did too.”

Unlike many celeb docs, Candy doesn’t become a full-blown addict or temperamental diva whose personal life unravels as his humble origins fade away. 

“I Like Me” is a celebration of his enduring work that will especially draw in comedy dorks. His time on “SCTV,” and in memorable movies such as “Planes, Trains and Automobiles” (the title comes from his character’s vulnerable speech), “Uncle Buck,” “Home Alone,” “Splash” and “Spaceballs” is exhaustively covered.

What a trip it is to watch Candy and his hilarious, scrappy Canadian compatriots, who got their start in a legendary Toronto production of the musical “Godspell,” all become the most sought after talents in Hollywood.

And yet how bittersweet it is that today, while so many of those names are at the peak of their fame and powers, Candy isn’t here with them.    

I hasten to say that, while the doc is very kind, it doesn’t shy away from the actor’s personal difficulties. 

His father died of a heart attack at age 35 on Candy’s fifth birthday, and the huge loss went almost unacknowledged by his family.

“He carried the weight of his father’s passing almost every day,” his “SCTV” co-star Dave Thomas says.

Candy also was self-conscious about his weight of more than 300 pounds. 

He didn’t like using his body for humor, and was uncomfortable with a part of the movie “Stripes” that turned him into a sight gag.

“He was very upset about ‘Stripes’ and the scene he had in the mud [in which he wrestled with girls],” said former Second City co-owner Andrew Alexander. Candy actually refused to film the scene shirtless.

A revealing glimpse into Candy’s character comes from Culkin, who was eight years old when he starred opposite him in “Uncle Buck.” 

Culkin has long claimed his father Kit, who he’s now estranged from, was abusive during his childhood. In “I Like Me,” he refers to his dad as “an infamous monster,” and says that on set, Candy was “paternal” and sensed something was not OK.

“Everything all right?,” Culkin remembers Candy asking. “Everything good at home?”

Culkin adds, “I wish I got more of that in my life… I remember John caring.” 

Candy’s friends cared more and more about his own wellbeing as he aged. They worried about his health and growing anxiety. His wife Rosemary had to buy him 5XL shirts, and he was having public panic attacks. 

While filming the physically demanding movie “Wagons East!” in hot Durango, Mexico, in 1994, Candy died in his sleep. 

Another actor in the film, Don Lake, remembers learning the horrible news. 

“I heard how they found him,” the “Best in Show” star says in the doc. “He was sat up on the side of the bed reading the Bible.”

The sniffles were loud at Toronto’s Princess of Wales Theatre as the film showed footage of Catherine O’Hara’s eulogy from Candy’s funeral. For the procession, California Interstate 405 was, in a rare move, closed off to other vehicles. 

Levy, drier than LA pavement, says, “You know you’ve made it when they’re closing freeways for you.”