Can You Ever Forgive Me? (2018)
Cast
- Melissa McCarthy as Lee Israel
- Richard E. Grant as Jack
- Marc Evan Jackson as Llyod
- Joanna Adler as Arlene
- Ben Falcone as Alan Schmidt
Director
- Marielle Heller
Writer
- Jeff Whitty
Writer
- Nicole Holofcener
Cinematographer
- Brandon Trost
Editor
- Anne McCabe
Composer
- Nate Heller
Comedy, Crime, Drama
107 minutes
Despite her brilliant energy and comic timing, Melissa McCarthy has starred in a number of not-so-great and forgettable movies—a streak that ends with Marielle Heller’s
“Can You Ever Forgive Me?” Here, McCarthy makes a grouchy curmudgeon
into a surprisingly sympathetic figure, throwing off her likable persona
to play someone who is cold to those close to her, and mean to just
about everyone else.
As a biographer who specializes in telling other people’s stories, Lee Israel (McCarthy) doesn’t value name recognition as much as her literary agent (Jane Curtin).
She also doesn’t dress up for parties or mingle with other writers
well, and it’s costing her professionally. After losing her job, her
beloved cat taking ill and receiving an eviction warning, Israel adapts
her writing skills into creating fake letters from famous names and
selling them for hundreds of dollars. It becomes a wildly lucrative new
career—one that attracts the attention of the FBI. In trying to avoid
detection, Israel enlists her close friend, Jack Hock (Richard E. Grant), to keep the fraud going until the feds catch up with them both.
Like Heller’s debut, “The Diary of a Teenage Girl,”
her next film is a period piece of an era that’s not too far from our
memory yet features stories we likely haven’t seen before. Her first
film was about the coming-of-age misadventures of a teenager (Bel Powley)
growing up in 1970s San Francisco. This time, Heller sheds the Polaroid
palette she used in that movie for a look that captures the in-between
feeling of its era—one where the grimiest of years had passed yet
working writers could still afford to live in Manhattan. Visually, it’s a
style that balances the sleek qualities of skyscrapers and the warm
tones of wooden shelves and books in an old dusty shop. Outside, Israel
walks through a dreary looking New York City, as if the weather reflects
Israel’s less-than-sunny outlook on life.
The range in
McCarthy’s performance cannot be overstated. At almost every turn, her
character gives the audience plenty of reason not to like her. Yet, with
Heller’s sympathetic approach and McCarthy’s acting, the movie
humanizes her beyond caricature. The part is far from any number of
one-note roles McCarthy has been boxed into. Here, she plays a combative
personality who really only shows regular kindness to her ailing cat
and whose social awkwardness also causes her to get defensive against
those trying to help or befriend her. When on a date with a bookshop
owner who likes her work, Israel fumbles through flirting with the
woman. There’s so much vulnerability just below this character’s prickly
surface, yet the audience only gets to see those moments in short
bursts.
To balance out the caustic on-screen personality, Grant
plays Hock as Israel’s polar opposite in almost every way. Where Israel
is most comfortable being frumpy and grumpy, Hock is charming and
dresses up to compensate for his transient lifestyle. She struggles to
connect with outsiders, while he connects with almost everyone who
crosses his path. He’s a bit like a grown-up raconteur in the spirit of
Grant’s character in “Withnail & I,” a devilishly charming person
who shakes the dust off someone whose become too complacent with life.
Israel and Hock make a delightful odd couple of friends, meeting
regularly for drinks at one of the Village’s oldest gay bars and trading
friendly barbs at each other. Their delightful rapport feels so lively,
that when it shatters, the silence that moves in between the two best
friends becomes the most painful part of Israel’s demise.
“Can You Ever Forgive Me?” is at once a low-stakes crime drama, a
buddy comedy, a period piece and a loving tribute to a woman who at this
point in her life and career did not feel loved. The movie not only
revisits the real Lee Israel’s old New York haunts like the bar Julius',
but also returns to the scenes of some of her crimes, the now-fading
independent book shops where she sold her fake letters. Even the jazz
standards that play throughout were chosen because they were some of
Israel’s favorite songs. “Can You Ever Forgive Me?” comes from a place
of understanding and love that few other biopics do, and it makes this
difficult character a joy to meet.
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