Can You Ever Forgive Me?

Marielle Heller follows up her brilliant directorial début, The Diary of a Teenage Girl (2015), with this comedic drama based on Lee Israel's 2008 confessional chronicle Can You Ever Forgive Me?: Memoirs of a Literary Forger. Melissa McCarthy stars as Israel, a writer who at first published respected biographies of successful women like Katharine Hepburn, Tallulah Bankhead, Dorothy Kilgallen, and Estée Lauder, but who experienced a marked career downturn in the late ‘80s and early ‘90s.  When we meet her, the caustic, hard-drinking Israel is broke, out of step with the marketplace, and close to getting evicted. With no one interested in paying advances for her writing anymore, she discovers she can make easy money forging letters from famous deceased authors and selling them to collectors. After teaming up with her friend and drinking buddy, the flamboyant hustler Jack Hock (Richard E. Grant), Israel discovers that her new vocation, while illegal, is something she has a great talent for. 

Heller and screenwriters Nicole Holofcener—the wonderful writer and director of Lovely and Amazing (2001), Please Give (2010), and Enough Said (2013)—and Jeff Whitty, the Tony Award winning book writer of the musical Avenue Q, avoid the potential pitfalls of a biographical picture about an unlikable character. They show us only what we need to know about Israel at the time the film takes place, letting information about her past arrive when it’s organic to the narrative. They allow their modest movie to unfold at a deliberate pace, without ever resorting to exaggerated set pieces. They never attempt to make Israel lovable, or even all that admirable in her nastiness (as one might do in making a biopic about, say, Tallulah Bankhead). Rather they approach Israel as a forlorn but gifted individual, worthy of caring about and understanding. And they respect their audience. For example, in telling a story set in the world of writing and publishing, they take for granted that viewers will be familiar with literary icons like Noël Coward and Dorothy Parker, an unthinkable assumption for a contemporary mainstream picture. 

Heller and McCarthy also make the wise choice to embrace the humor of their protagonist and her unhappy situations. Unlike far too many comedians when they take on dramatic roles, McCarthy understands that all people are funny—even sad, washed up alcoholic writers (often the funniest people, at least in small doses). Much of the joy in the movie comes from watching McCarthy and Richard E. Grant play off each other in roles that feel tailor-made for them.

While acclaimed by critics, embraced by audiences, and considered by many to be a national treasure as a comedy performer, McCarthy has had an unflattering film career. Her demeaning, anything-for-a-laugh, outrageous fat lady roles in movies like Bridesmaids (2011), Identity Thief (2013), Spy  (2015), and Ghostbusters  (2016) invite comparison to the callow screen persona of Chris Farley rather than the more nuanced charisma of John Candy.  Can You Ever Forgive Me? is her first film to earn the sentimental affection we’re always meant to feel for her characters—perhaps because the sentiment is so minimal that its so genuine.

McCarthy never overplays the emotional moments, which both make her Lee Israel authentic and provide an effective counterbalance with Grant’s vibrant ne’er-do-well. Grant is always fun to have in a movie, playing variations on an eccentric Brit. From his early leading roles in Bruce Robinson’s English films, Withnail and I (1987) and How to Get Ahead in Advertising (1989), through his time as a comedic Hollywood supporting actor in movies like Hudson Hawk (1991), The Player (1992), and Gosford Park (2001), to his contemporary character parts in The Iron Lady (2011), Jackie (2016), and Logan (2017), Grant shines brightest in roles that adhere closely to his established persona. His Jack Hock in Can You Ever Forgive Me? fits the mold beautifully.

This New York-set movie is a rarity in that it looks like the real New York. I lived in the city in the time period depicted, and the film feels so authentic you can almost smell each location. The picture is also populated by actors who seem to belong in the slowly rebounding Manhattan of not too long ago. Dolly Wells shines as the bookshop owner who purchases Lee’s first forgery and tries to get to know her. Anna Deavere Smith has an excellent cameo as the one person who ever got close to Israel. And original Not-Ready-For Prime-Time-Player Jane Curtain gets her greatest film role so far as Israel’s agent—recalling Sydney Pollack’s unforgettable turn in Tootsie (1982). 

Everything about Can You Ever Forgive Me? harkens back to the era in which the story takes place—a time when journeyman writers could still afford to live in Manhattan and when Hollywood studios released twenty to thirty modest, mid-budget pictures like this one, many of which became hits. Though Heller is a thirty-something who grew up in California, she’s the ideal person to helm this material. In The Diary of a Teenage Girl, she deftly grounded us in the perspective of her protagonist without ever losing empathy for the other characters. Everyone in that movie behaved irresponsibly to various degrees, but no one came off as a two-dimensional villain. One can so easily imagine lesser filmmakers turning Israel into a broad joke, forcing the story into a heroic narrative of female oppression transformed into empowerment, or laying on hackneyed commentary about how our society values successful fakes more than authentic treasures. Heller subtly hints at these ideas, but understands the art of letting an audience ascertain themes and subtext for ourselves.  This sophomore effort establishes her as a major filmmaker we can expect great things from.

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Heller's sophomore film is another terrific throwback to a bygone era. McCarthy and Grant make a delightfully miss-matched duo in this funny, wistful, nuanced blend of character-study and caper picture.