Have to admit that I have a built-in aversion to biopics about my own cultural heroes. I just couldn't pay 12 bucks to see the Fresh Prince play Muhammad Ali. Jim Carrey as Andy Kaufman? Why bother. And while Colm Feore had the timing and tone of Pierre Trudeau, the end result was a shrug.
NOSTALGIA CIRCUIT
Recent TV biopics on The Beach Boys and The Monkees had their moments. But all this dress up and pretend about people who are still working their own shtick on the nostalgia circuit is a bummer, man.
More impressive, for me, was watching Judy Davis completely crawl into Judy Garland's tormented skin last year in a compelling TV movie. But, without taking anything away from Davis, it helped that Garland was a generation or two removed from my experience.
Which brings us to tonight's biopic, Gilda Radner: It's Always Something (CITY-TV/ABC, 9 p.m.). Jami Gertz (The X-Files) plays the Saturday Night Live standout who finally found true love with Gene Wilder only to have her life cut short by ovarian cancer.
Their unlikely love story is the sweetest part of tonight's movie, which was shot in Toronto just this past winter. Gertz, who bears a fair resemblance to Radner, shines in the quieter moments. She does a passable Roseanne Roseannadanna impersonation, but then again so did everyone in my high school.
This is one time shooting a film in Toronto makes perfect sense. It all began here for Radner. There was her goofy audition for Godspell, the Toronto musical that launched the careers of Paul Shaffer, Victor Garber, Marty Short, Eugene Levy, Andrea Martin and Dave Thomas. There's her stint with Toronto's Second City comedy stage, where John Candy and Dan Aykroyd emerged.
Many of these comedy icons all lived in the same house at one time on Avenue Road. Talk to Thomas, Aykroyd or Garber about Radner today and they either well up or genuflect. She was deeply loved by her peers.
The other actors do a good job of impersonating the not ready for prime time players, especially Mather Zickel as Bill Murray, the other Nerd twin who teamed with Radner both on and offstage. Eric Siegel plays a very angry John Belushi. Tom Rooney nails Wilder, finding just the right quiver in his voice.
The movie picks up steam in the second half as Radner finds the courage to fight her cancer with humour. These scenes seem more genuine than the earlier, SNL impersonations. You'll root for Cancer Woman and Chemo Dog, as Radner came to call herself towards the end.
SUCCUMBED TO CANCER
Sadly, Radner succumbed to cancer at age 42 in 1989. If you didn't see her the first time, or even if you did, skip the biopic and tune in earlier for Gilda Radner's Greatest Moments (CITY-TV/ABC, 8 p.m.). It's the girl herself in all her comic glory, a gifted, charismatic performer only hinted at near the very end of the biopic, where a clip of Radner herself captures in seconds what all the fuss was about.
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