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Can You Ever Forgive Me?
****
Dir: Marielle Heller
Starring: Melissa McCarthy, Richard E. Grant
(USA, 15, 1hr 46mins)
A writer’s tale based on fact, this Nicole Holofcener-penned drama follows Lee Israel, a struggling author who specialized in biographies during the 1970s and 80s. When her work fell out of vogue, she began to struggle with her finances and alcoholism, so she turned to fraud to make a living.
Played by Melissa McCarthy, Israel is a spiky, reserved and angry presence, living on her own after a failed relationship with another woman with a cat that she treasures more than people.
Faced with dire finances, Israel starts selling off her possessions, including a letter she received from Katherine Hepburn for which she makes a tidy sum. She soon finds that there is a massive market for these letters from celebrities and starts crafting her own. She pretends to be Dorothy Parker, Noel Coward and various other literary figures. She enlists the help of fellow flamboyant drinker Jack Hock, played by a gloriously hammy Richard E Grant and for a while make a decent living.
Then it all falls apart and Israel becomes more and more desperate as the FBI becomes aware of her little scam. Well played by McCarthy and Grant, this is an intriguing tale of authorship and principles and a snapshot of the greed of pretend aesthetes. Dolly Wells also pops up as a kindly book shop owner who takes an interest in Israel only to be rebuffed.
Based on Israel’s own memoir this does not allow the author off the hook; she is needy, abrasive and often unlikeable but McCarthy keeps her interesting, Grant shines as the rakish actor on his uppers, slowly spiraling into illness and unable to make any real friends himself, picking up men who abuse him and ultimately falling prey to the 1980s plague. Well told by Diary of a Teenage Girl director Marielle Heller, Can You Ever Forgive Me is a well-judged and involving character piece with something to say about literary matters.
words Keiron Self
Out now in cinemas