I get nervous when I hear Melissa McCarthy is in a movie. She’s very good at being funny, but she so often plays the same character over and over that I get her movies confused. Even so, I had high hopes going into Can You Ever Forgive Me? and I’m so happy those hopes weren’t dashed. McCarthy is wonderful as real-life author Lee Israel – a down on her luck, alcoholic, and straight-up unlikable person – who, quite by accident, finds herself as a career criminal. This is a great story with a lot of heart, and a lead that’s impossible to hate, even though you should.
I’ve been wary of “based on a true story” films ever since the Coen brothers duped us with Fargo(1996), but Lee Israel really did exist, and she really did do what the movie says she did. In fact, from what I can tell, screenwriters Nicole Holofcener and Jeff Whitty remain closer to the truth than most films do. Embellishments here, and dramatizations there, no doubt, but that’s par for the course.
In the early ‘90s, biographer and borderline misanthrope Lee Israel (McCarthy) has found herself fallen on some hard times. Her rent is long overdue, her cat is sick, and she’s got a drinking habit. While working on a book about famed comedienne and singer Fanny Brice, she stumbles on a way to make some quick cash. One thing leads to another, and before you know it, she’s the best literary forger in New York. Her sudden upturn in the finance department doesn’t do anything to change her cantankerous attitude, but that’s why we love her after all.
Along for the ride is aging gay lothario and drug addict Jack Hock (Richard E. Grant). He’s the only person who can stand to be around Lee, and since she can’t find enough reasons to hate him – and that he makes for an entertaining drinking buddy – a friendship is formed.
This pairing – McCarthy and Grant as Israel and Hock – has more chemistry than any romance of the year. She never quite comes out of her shell, but she comes as close as is possible for her – and that feels more real than anything even the best love stories can produce. Once you realize that this isn’t a film about crime and criminals, but one about lonely people trying their damnedest to connect with others, a new kind of light shines down on it. Both actors embody their characters as they navigate their unconventional relationship and their newfound life of crime.
Grant is a veteran character actor who may have found the best role of his career in the flamboyant hustler, Jack. McCarthy’s Lee is a breath of fresh air for her – a welcomed break from the usual comedy roles she’s known for (and which make her a lot more money). I believe her every single second she’s onscreen. She never betrays her role or falls into old comedy habits. I truly hope there’s some serious awards season recognition for McCarthy and director Marielle Heller – who’s small slice of early ‘90s New York comes completely alive.
Movies like this often feature a downward spiral into crime whose momentum can’t be stopped until someone dies or goes to prison – or both. That’s not what we get with Can You Ever Forgive Me? Not really anyway. There are cops and a judge, but the final verdict is almost satisfying rather than a defeat. It’s easy to love the unlikable Lee Israel, and even though the film paints her crimes as large within the world she inhabits, in the grand scheme of things they’re not so big. I don’t relate to criminals like Tony Montana (Scarface, 1983) or Alex (A Clockwork Orange, 1971), but I find it easy to relate to Lee. What does that say about me?
James is a writer, skateboarder, record collector, wrestling nerd, and tabletop gamer living with his family in Asheville, North Carolina. He is a member of the Southeastern Film Critics Association, the North Carolina Film Critics Association, and contributes to The Daily Orca, Razorcake Magazine, Mountain Xpress, and Asheville Movies.