Celebrity biographer Lee Israel makes her living profiling the likes of Katharine Hepburn, Tallulah Bankhead, Estee Lauder, and journalist Dorothy Kilgallen. When Lee is no longer able to get published because she has fallen out of step with current tastes, she turns her art form to deception, abetted by her loyal friend Jack.
This film is based on the autobiographical confession, ‘Can You Ever Forgive Me?’ which was released in 2008 by Author Leonore Carol “Lee” Israel. If you like dramas about real crime stories, especially involving women, this is definitely the film to see. The energy feels sad at times but also raw and of course, there are many funny moments. There is definitely that instance when you know something wrong is happening, yet you still hope the character gets away with it because you just want them to be better somehow because of it.
Before Lee (Melissa McCarthy) began forging personal letters written by renowned writers and selling them as originals, she was once a New York Times best-selling Author. Over time, she wasn’t producing any literature that could support her financially. She came to the point where she was months behind in rent and couldn’t even afford her basic bills. After meeting with her editor and being told that she will never sell any of her work unless she becomes likable and play the game like other writers who make millions off their books, she resorts to selling old books she has lying around to the local book store.
One day while in a bar…oh, by the way, Lee has an unapologetic drinking problem so she is constantly in bars throughout the movie which everyone in the theater found hilarious including myself. As a matter of fact, in the opening scene, she is getting fired from her job for mouthing off at the boss while drinking scotch at her desk. This particular day in the bar she is approached by a lively man by the name of Jack Hock (Richard E. Grant) who playfully makes his way into her life, little by little. It seems like they have nothing in common in the beginning, but as the story progresses, we discover they have everything in common. Jack is eccentric, lively, bold and lives for the day. Lee is disheveled, cold, emotionally distant and has a loud mouth that pushes people away. Neither have any friends, so that day in the bar, their friendship begins and a certain level of trust is established and for Lee, I believe it is for the very first time.
While Lee is set to work on an upcoming biography, she finds an original letter written by the author in one of the books she is researching while in the library. She steals it of course and decides to take it to the local book store and see how much she can get for it. She meets the very sweet bookstore owner named Ana (Dolly Wells) who gives her a good price for it and is also intrigued by her work. After Lee recognizes that the letters are worth money, she decides to forge her own, passing them off as originals. Surprisingly, a connection starts to form between Lee and Anna. This is such a great introduction into the true personality of Lee, the reveal of fear of trust and pushing away, which seems to be one of her natural defense mechanisms.
The letters Lee forge are genius. They are fun, witty and have better personality than any of the originals. She begins making a great living at selling them to dealers and finally confesses to Jack what she is doing. While everything seems to be going well, all crime perpetrators must get caught in the end. After one of the dealers confronts her about the inauthentic letters, he demands that she pay him the full amount of money back and he promises to not inform the police who has already been notified of her illegal activities. This is where the story gets even better! In order to pay back the money she owes him, she has to sell more letters and because she is on the watch list of criminal activity to all the dealers, she has no choice but to hire Jack to sell the letters so she doesn’t get arrested. Somehow Jack is successful until the whole operation comes crashing down and he ends up betraying her.
What I love about this film is that even though it is not a typical suspense narrative that has you at the edge of your seat until the very end, you have an amazing level of complexity and depth of the characters to try and understand; which I find far more exciting. Lee is emotionally distant to the world and even more to herself. She is a writer who writes about other writers and then writes as other writers but is too fearful to actually write about herself. She never fully lets her guard down, trusts anyone and deep down she doesn’t even think she is a good writer. Jack, who is of a particular age, lives his life like a schoolboy, running the streets, doing recreational drugs and having one night stands with young men. He is trying to figure out who he is, come to terms with his fate and accept that he will never get another chance at life.
There is so much discussion to be had about this film in terms of friendship, disloyalty, self-discovery, honesty, what is forgiveness and is it deserved? What does it mean to be a real artist or successful? Why do we need validation from others, and the list goes on. I thought this was an amazing movie, Melissa McCarthy and Richard E. Grant were perfect together. At the Q&A, Richard stated that he had only moments to meet with Melissa and the chemistry they had was pure preparation.
Now available on Video On Demand
