John Candy: I Like Me

John Candy: I Like Me, from director Colin Hanks, produced by his father, Tom, is a sprawling and at times, near hagiographic look at the actor and comedian, John Candy. This is one of the few times where hagiography works, because by all accounts, while being a human being with everyday foibles, Candy was not a person that anyone seems ever to have had a harsh word about whom to say.

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Starting with his early life in Toronto, and tracing it from the death of his father onwards, the film examines his drive to become a sports success and a soldier, though a football injury would derail both. This then turned him toward comedy, and eventually SCTV, which he starred in from the late 1970s through the early 1980s. It is no secret his film and tv career was short, in comparison to others, but seeing it presented here, his real stardom lasted only a little over a decade. As such, this film becomes as much about legacy, both personal and professional, as it does the content itself. There are home movies and tv interviews, as well as reminisces by family and friends. There is, of course, a plethora of footage from his film and television work, and always spoken of in context by those who worked alongside and knew him best.

It is pointed out, for instance, that he worked on 9 films from John Hughes, and that Macaulay Culkin considers him a very dear and special friend, who looked out for him on the set of Uncle Buck, when pretty much nobody else seemed to really care about the damage Culkin’s father was causing the young star. Candy’s children speak about how he was as a father, and how his absence in their lives, because of his death, has had an impact on them. His death, at age 43, is put into great perspective.

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Essentially forced by the entertainment business to remain overweight, Candy was caught between trying to take care of himself, physically and mentally, and maintaining a very specific role in his chosen profession. His wife, Rosemary, gets a significant amount of time in which to detail the pressures they faced as a couple, in terms of her support for him and his career but also wanting what was best for him on a personal and health level. Other friends and family comment on this, but the weight issue is only one of many dimensions explored here.

Perhaps more so, is his impeccable timing, range and ability to instantly innovate, to ad lib. Tom Hanks speaks in one portion about how this affected, positively, their work together during the filming of Splash. Fellow cast members from SCTV, such as Bill Thomas, Eugene Levy, Catherine O’Hara and Martin Short, comment on his drive for the perfect comedic moment, and his generous spirit. This also comes through when mention is made of his time as part-owner of the Toronto Argonauts football team, and how, while the other owners were in the suite, Candy was on the field, checking on players and assisting the coaches and managers with whatever was needed.

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By the end of the film, you may wish he had lived longer, and done more. The film hints at how, like so many other comedic actors of his period, he had begun dabbling in dramatic work, and what might have been. The same with his growing interest as a writer and director, though a frequent collaborator makes mention of how he was, perhaps, too specific and impulsive in his creative vision, to last in this role. What you have, here, is a perfectly fine, by the numbers film about one of the great comedic actors of the second half of the twentieth century, and certainly one of the most genuine people the film business has known.

John Candy: I Like Me is now streaming on Prime Video.