When Lee Israel falls out of step with current tastes, she turns her art form to deception.When Lee Israel falls out of step with current tastes, she turns her art form to deception.When Lee Israel falls out of step with current tastes, she turns her art form to deception.When Lee Israel falls out of step with current tastes, she turns her art form to deception.When Lee Israel falls out of step with current tastes, she turns her art form to deception.
Videos10
Rosal Colon
- Rachelas Rachel
- (as Rosal Colón)
In the early 1990s, Lee Israel, a biographer with a modicum of writing success, has fallen on hard times largely of her own doing. Her choice of subjects is in general not of interest to today's book buying public, and she, in her only true friends being her aged cat Jersey and a scotch and soda in not really liking people and people in turn not really liking her, has burned bridges with everyone her agent Marjorie has built for her. She will have to start from the ground up again if she wants a writing career, as, hiding behind her subjects, the book buying public will not buy a "Lee Israel" on the strength of her name in not knowing who she is as a writer or person. This situation has led to her being months behind in rent as she spends whatever little money she has on alcohol and Jersey's medical needs. In doing research for her latest book on Fanny Brice - with no advance from Marjorie - and selling a cherished personal memento of a handwritten letter from Katharine Hepburn in needing the money, Lee discovers there is a market for such celebrity memorabilia, and in the process decides, with her writing talent, to go into the fraudulent business of creating and selling fake personal documents purportedly by dead celebrities, especially of writers with strong public personas, such as Dorothy Parker and Noël Coward. She ends up befriending a gay past acquaintance from her literary circles, Jack Hock, also having fallen on hard times, Jack, not only becoming her drinking buddy, but her partner in crime. As they are able to get out of their financial holes in this business, Lee may begin to have second thoughts in also befriending Anna, one of the rare bookstore owners who likes Lee for Lee, an unusual position for her. But as the fraud looks like it may catch up specifically to Lee, she, feeling like these fakes are at least stretching her writing muscles, only becomes more resolute in at least the creative pursuit of what she's doing. —Huggo
Top review
Yes!
I must first confess that I was pleasantly surprised by the exceptional performance of the actress Melissa McCarthy who is (was?) almost-systematically accustomed to cinematographic pieces of junk such as Life of the Party (2018), Ghostbusters (2016) or Charlie's Angels (2000). I sincerely hope that this film will mark a turning point in her career, with a before and an after.
Then, the subject is not really bankable: no superhero, no sexy actress, no Computer-Generated Imagery. In addition, the main characters are two insignificant loosers who will attract the wrath of the FBI because of their secret activity of a two-penny faker and will then be within an inch of jail. Of course, with such a script, the movie will probably not be a hit at the world box-office.
Nevertheless, the movie is delightfully excellent and describes with subtlety and sensitivity an ineluctable descent into the abyss. Lee Israel (Melissa McCarthy) was a writer with some success. One of her books was even mentioned in the New York Times best sellers. But, success is now part of the past and she regularly has huge difficulties in paying her rent. By chance, in an old book of a public library, she discovers a real typed letter from a well-known female writer. Begins then an improvised career of a scammer with false letters from real personalities that she skillfully engineers within her shabby apartment.
As a synthesis, Can You Ever Forgive Me? (2018) is excellent! 8/9 of 10
Then, the subject is not really bankable: no superhero, no sexy actress, no Computer-Generated Imagery. In addition, the main characters are two insignificant loosers who will attract the wrath of the FBI because of their secret activity of a two-penny faker and will then be within an inch of jail. Of course, with such a script, the movie will probably not be a hit at the world box-office.
Nevertheless, the movie is delightfully excellent and describes with subtlety and sensitivity an ineluctable descent into the abyss. Lee Israel (Melissa McCarthy) was a writer with some success. One of her books was even mentioned in the New York Times best sellers. But, success is now part of the past and she regularly has huge difficulties in paying her rent. By chance, in an old book of a public library, she discovers a real typed letter from a well-known female writer. Begins then an improvised career of a scammer with false letters from real personalities that she skillfully engineers within her shabby apartment.
As a synthesis, Can You Ever Forgive Me? (2018) is excellent! 8/9 of 10
helpful•599
- FrenchEddieFelson
- Aug 5, 2019
Contribute to this page
Suggest an edit or add missing content
More to explore
Around the web
Powered by Taboola
Recently viewed
You have no recently viewed pages
