Genre: Crime/Drama
Related Titles: American Animals, The Danish Girl, The Happy Prince
By Leanne Harragan
When celebrity biographer Lee Israel falls out with her publisher, she turns to deception with the aid of her friend Jack to get herself published.
I was pleasantly surprised to go into this film and find myself quite hooked by the storytelling. While it wasn't particularly fast-paced or even incredibly exciting, I found myself intrigued by the life of Lee Israel. Melissa McCarthy and Richard E. Grant star and their on-screen toxic friendship is almost addicting to watch.
Based on the life of Lee Israel, famous or perhaps infamous for the forging of literary letters. The film opens with her struggling to make ends meet: months behind on rent, a ever increasing vets bill, a sick cat and an agent that won't return her calls. When she happens to find a real letter from model and comedienne Fanny Brice, she stumbles upon a potential cash cow. From there her life seems to be on the up and up as she forges more and more letters.
Melissa McCarthy plays main character Lee Israel paired with co-star Richard E. Grant as Jack Hock, they both gave excellent performances. I loved that their relationship began as practically strangers and from there, blossomed into a sort-of friendship where they both put up with each other to escape from their loneliness. Dolly Wells played potential love-interest and bookshop keeper Anna, I really liked her character as she was passionate about her job, interests and seemed like a very genuine person.
One of the biggest problems that this film has is that some of the sadder moments (and there are plenty) don't really hit home as both Israel and Hock are rather unlikable. This left me feeling that it was quite hard to sympathise with two characters that are pretty much completely horrible.
Overall, it's fair to say that despite having two unlikable lead characters, I was gripped by the story and found it all quite interesting. McCarthy and Grant are excellent, there are a few laughs along the way and there are a few camera shots that are particularly nice. All in all not a bad watch.
Rating: 7.5/10
By Rebecca Mannick
Can you ever forgive me was a very intriguing movie. Solely based of the life of Lee Israel you found out about her life and how she ended up forging letters of successful people of interest. Melissa McCarthy plays Lee and you could argue that it is her best role to date. She really changed my perception of her as an actress as you would usually associate McCarthy with stupid funny films. Not so long a go we saw her front up 'Life of the Party' which was a disaster.
You quickly find out about Lee (no backstory but you can fill in the gaps), she's living in New York with her cat and you can tell her passion for writing had been lost. Her publishers had pushed her back and you could tell that her attitude was starting to decline. She comes across as a sort of bitter person, angry at the world for no particular reason, she had given up on herself and her appearance and state of apartment reflected that. However after meeting Jack Hock (Richard E Grant) you could tell that he was mischievous and was going to change Lee's life in some way. The onscreen connection between Lee and Jack was superb - you could tell that Lee didn't know how to communicate with a friend. It felt like she lost the ability to connect and Jack kind of started to bring it out of her.
In terms of the storyline - it was a good as it could have been. It wasn't too exciting but it moved along at a comfortable pace. The overall acting was very good and rewarded with a few nominations at the mainstream awards. McCarthy impressed me the most with her versatility as an actress. This will probably be her best role in her whole career. As a movie it was solid but nothing to write home about.
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