Fox Searchlight
It takes a lot of guts to make a biographical movie about someone most people have never heard of, but it takes a lot of smarts to cast a big star in the lead to make sure people will be interested in seeing that movie. The folks at Fox Searchlight have taken a huge gamble with Can You Ever Forgive Me?, the story of author Lee Israel, and are banking on Melissa McCarthy to bring in audiences. Was the gamble worth it?
Can You Ever Forgive Me? takes place during a severe downswing in Israel’s career. The once celebrated biographer, who had written about famous subjects like Katherine Hepburn and Dorothy Kilgallen, has found that in 1991, readers are really not interested in learning about popular figures from the past and there really isn’t anything new to learn about them (like Fanny Brice, the subject of Lee’s hoped for next project). Lee has fallen out of favor not just among readers but with her own agent, having to compete against the likes of Tom Clancy, who’s getting $3 million book deals while Lee can’t even score a $10,000 advance. And it’s not just her subject matter that is a problem, it’s Lee herself, a grouchy uber-curmudgeon who thinks her wit is ascerbic but is actually downright mean. Her only real friend is her cat.
Behind on her rent and needed medical attention for said cat, Lee finds an old letter tucked inside a library book that has collectible value because of the author of the letter. She takes and sells the letter for a couple of hundred dollars and discovers a whole world of collectible letters. Not having access to any other real letters, Lee begins creating her own letters in the voice of the celebrities she is impersonating, buying various typewriters to match the era of the star, and learning how to forge their signatures. She claims to be selling the artifacts for a relative but things begin to go south when the buyers are becoming aware that the letters are forgeries. Knowing she can’t show her face anymore, Lee enlists the help of her sort-of friend Jack (Richard E. Grant) who is successful in continuing the ruse … to a point.
Can You Ever Forgive Me? faithfully recreates a New York City of 1991, giving you the feeling that this is a real period piece. While the feel of the movie is important, it lives or dies on its two leads and they are both terrific. McCarthy has long been accused of playing the same role over and over again in the comedies she and her husband Ben Falcone write (and he directs), so it was really time for her to do something different after her last few movies were not so well received. Oddly enough, she’s still playing almost that same type of character here, but she puts a lot more gravitas into this performance. Lee Israel is not the buffoon McCarthy often plays, so she really had to dig deep and ground the character and she really succeeds on all levels, making you feel sorry for her, then appalled by her actions, but somehow still sympathetic in the end. It’s a tough character to nail and not have the audience hate and McCarthy is fantastic. This is an awards-worthy performance, so look for an Oscar showdown between her and Lady Gaga this year (the two could split Best Actress at the Golden Globes if the studio submits this movie in the drama category).
McCarthy is ably abetted by the wonderful Richard E. Grant as Jack, an old queen who seems to be frivolous on the surface but actually has a very sad existence that he always puts a shiny veneer on. Jack finds an irascible kindred spirit in Lee, almost breaking through the wall she’s built around herself, but it is a tough wall to breach. We really don’t get to know a lot about Jack — he may actually be homeless but he always has a change of clothes — but when he is on screen with Lee, it is pure movie magic. Jack could also tip over into the horribly self-centered jerk who’s only looking for his next fix or sexual partner, but again it comes down to Grant’s wonderful performance that makes you not hate him, and actually miss him when Jack is not on screen.
Dolly Wells is also very good as a potential love interest for Lee, one of the buyers she’s been scamming with her fake letters (and she stops selling to her when those feelings are expressed), and you feel the heartbreak Wells projects when a dinner date goes awkwardly awry and the truth about Lee comes out. Also great in her too few scenes is Jane Curtain as Lee’s agent, the one person who has the balls to tell Lee what a terrible person she is. Anne Deavere Smith, Stephen Spinella and — yes — Ben Falcone round out the cast of familiar faces.
The terrific script by Nicole Holofcener and Jeff Whitty does a fine balancing act with Lee, keeping her from becoming a total monster, and the film flows smoothly thanks to the direction of Marielle Heller, never feeling choppy like the other biopic Bohemian Rhapsody (and hopefully this movie doesn’t fudge the facts like the Queen biopic does). Can You Ever Forgive Me? may not end up being a blockbuster at the box office, but if you enjoy well-written stories performed by a group of actors at the top of their games, and assuredly directed by a woman making her feature film debut (Heller is currently directing the Tom Hanks Mr. Rogers movie which bodes well for that project), then you must make it a point to see Can You Ever Forgive Me?. If you don’t, you may not forgive yourself.
Can You Ever Forgive Me? has a run time of 1 hour 46 minutes and is rated R for language including some sexual references, and brief drug use.
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