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Can You Ever Forgive Me? (2018), R, ★★★★


It is sad to see a writer's work go astray as time passes on as people would want to read on different and potentially more aspiring writers who voices their own diverse opinions. Opinions are difficult and dangerous to offer because people will be defensive and attack the individual who voiced that opinion. There is a difference between voicing an opinion and being a smug person who think his or her opinions are presented as fact and will not like you. Regardless of any opinion, the person is a human being who have emotions in them and writers do not get paid a high salary compared to other people in other professions unless the company sees some potential and a great target market for the book or their content. So, a writer could get away with some content but forgery? Well. It is unworthy to re-vitalize one's career forging but it is great material thanks to wonderful performances, a fantastic screenplay and very solid direction from Marielle Heller.

A writer and author named Lee Israel (Melissa McCarthy) is broke because of her outdated writing style and works no longer getting published. Unable to secure advances for her next book, Israel is forced to sell her beloved possessions to fix her finances, even parting away from a letter from Katharine Hepburn. While researching for her next book about Fanny Brice, Israel sees a letter from Brice from one of the books she is reading and escapes with the letter and tries to sell it to the same dealer buying all her possessions including the letter. It is turned down due to uninteresting content.

Israel begins selling forged letters that has been written by deceased writers and playwrights. She provides fake intimate details and thoughts to have dealers being enamored by them and selling it a high price. However, her fortunes are unfortunately turned around as her letters are stop being sold and the FBI begins investigating her and warns dealers to not buy her letters.


I loved this movie. This is a movie that honest about a person's isolation and insecurity that she turns to deception to re-vitalize her career. But, you see a difference in class surrounding people whereas you observe her agent played by Jane Curtin having a great time at a party when Israel is struggling to re-pay her debt for her apartment that is as dirty as a garbage truck. However, it is the combination between a gay friend and the struggling forger that drives this movie home with great fashion because you can feel their different but personal troubles between them as they help each other. You have grown to appreciate these friends and partners in crime.

Melissa McCarthy has given her best performance to date and I will be surprised if she does not get recognized in award circuits this year at least for a nomination. You empathize with this angry, tired yet lovable person who got what she deserves in the end because of what she did. But, the empathy comes towards all of her dedication of writing about high-profiled women that made a difference in the 1960s-1980s and wanted to strive for that same excellence. Israel chased that excellence with that perseverance but it bit her in the end. Also, Richard E. Grant is sublime and is warranted for a Best Supporting Actor nomination and his chemistry with McCarthy is both funny and melancholy.

Director Marielle Heller channels in a grim New York drama that is on the cusp of humor from directors such as Woody Allen, John Schlesinger or Rob Reiner. It is a movie that surrounds that bleak situation with such winning chemistry and dialogue, provided by Nicole Holofcener and Jeff Whitty, that you want to sit there and eavesdrop to what they are planning and also just laugh and smile along with them in a bar because sometimes, you need time to get away from the struggles and focus on providing a potential memory with friends. This is an exceptional film that begs for forgiveness yet persuades us to understand her struggle and unfortunately, witness her crime. This is a great film.

****


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