Directed by: Marielle Heller
Starring: Melissa McCarthy, Richard E. Grant, Anna Deveare Smith, Ben Falcone, Jane Curtin
Lee Israel committed her forgeries in a time where people would still believe you, or even care, that you had a long-lost letter from Fanny Brice or Noel Coward which just so happened to turn up in the closet you were cleaning out. Book shop owners (remember book shops?) respond with sheer joy and awe when Lee would provide them with a relic letter typed up on an old-fashioned typewriter. After all, who would try to sell letters written long ago by almost forgotten writers who wasn't on the level? To quote Sean Connery from The Untouchables after Eliot Ness told him he was a treasury agent, "Who would pretend to be that, who is not?"
Can You Ever Forgive Me? stars Melissa McCarthy as Lee Israel, a prickly biography writer who rubs people the wrong way and can't understand when her agent tells her no one is interested in Fanny Brice biographies anymore, especially in early 1990's New York. The movie stars Melissa McCarthy, but it is not a "Melissa McCarthy movie" such as bombs like The Heat, Life of the Party, Tammy, etc., all of which turned her into a loud, shrill character who we couldn't wait to part company with. Her Lee Israel is a sloppy, alcoholic, defensive mess whose only friends in the world are a twelve-year-old cat and flamboyant fellow alcoholic Jack Hock (Grant), who assists her in her future forgeries and may or may not be homeless. Lee's apartment is so filthy and disgusting that even the exterminator won't go in there until it is cleaned. She is so far behind in her rent that homelessness may soon be on the agenda for her.
McCarthy's Lee Israel is subdued and pounded down by life, but when she discovers book shop owners actually want to buy real letters from Dorothy Parker and Noel Coward she finds hidden in her books, she schemes to forge other ones. Lee buys several different typewriters, bake the letters in the oven to give them an aged appearance, and masterfully learns to fake the writers' signatures in order to fool trusting shopkeepers into forking over several hundred dollars for each. We know this pyramid scheme can't possibly last, because all it takes is one suspicious collector to bring the whole operation crashing down. Lee's goals are modest: She wants to pay her bills, have her sick cat treated at the vet, and buy a steak dinner once in a while. She knows she won't be buying yachts with the money she makes, but at least she won't be out on the street and her cat will be well again.
McCarthy disappears into the role of Lee, and even though she isn't the most pleasant person in the world, we can still enjoy watching her. She and Grant have great chemistry. Both are lonely souls who have seen better days, and their friendship is one borne out of desperation, lots of drinking at bars in mid-afternoon, and a need for companionship. But, surprise, surprise, they find they might even like each other's company. There is no hope for romance, since both Lee and Jack are gay, but their relationship is at the heart of why Can You Ever Forgive Me? works so well.
For many a moon, I've lamented that Melissa McCarthy wastes her talents in roles and movies which appealed to the lowest common denominator. She doesn't throw any throat punches in this movie, and her performance is a study in how less is definitely more. I pray she decides to stay on this path, stretching her talents in challenging movies which may not light the box office on fire, but at least provide us with some depth and versatility. In Can You Ever Forgive Me?, we find that as much as Lee Israel wanted to keep the world outside, we can't help but care about her.
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