Can You Ever Forgive Me? is the film adaptation of Lee Israel’s memoir. Melissa McCarthy plays Israel, a biographer and New York Times bestseller that found herself unemployed, her books unmarketable and on the verge of being evicted when she decided to use her talents to fake correspondence from famous personages.
I was not planning on seeing Can You Ever Forgive Me? in theaters, but I was slowly swayed by McCarthy’s promotion of the film on The Daily Show. After I discovered that Marielle Heller directed the film, I looked her up and was pleased by her credits, specifically Diary of a Teenage Girl, which reassured me that it wasn’t the usual McCarthy comedy blockbuster that I wait to see on DVD because it is going to rake in plenty of money without me, but an independent film, at least in spirit, that would need my support. Finally a friend familiar with my cinematic tastes, specifically my love of Manhattan, gave it her stamp of approval and a much appreciated warning that psychologically prepared me for the death of a character.
While Can You Ever Forgive Me? is a fairly conventional biopic, it stands out because it chooses to chronicle an unlikeable person who is not rich or famous. We need to hear the raisin in the sun stories as much as the rags to riches stories because failure in spite of talent should be normalized so people don’t feel so alone or condemned. She is bewildered by the lie told to people with talent—that at some point, things will be easier, and success will be attained. Once society categorizes a person as a loser, that loser does not get shot and still has to survive. While Lee does disreputable things, the movie roots for her and makes her likeable by not dismissing her humanity and accepting her for who she is.
Can You Ever Forgive Me? argues for the dignity and respect of all people, including and especially an unpleasant, overweight, lesbian loner. Unlike most drama crime films, she isn’t doing it to live a lavish lifestyle. She just wants to meet her basic needs without being treated like crap so she creates a space for herself, which is temporary and precarious, but offers just enough room to breathe. Honestly I’m a rule follower, but a cat in jeopardy would be all the mitigating circumstance that I needed to rationalize her conduct.
Can You Ever Forgive Me? is such a simple movie. She just wants her work to be appreciated, to not be greeted immediately with meanness for not paying her chick tax (beauty and youth as rent owed to the world) and to have friendly and romantic companionship. McCarthy plays Israel beautifully-with a blunt guardedness eager to respond to kindness with generosity yet hesitant because of experience in disappointment. Lee was disturbingly and viscerally relatable for me.
Even though Lee is someone that society would prefer to exile and forget, her stubborn refusal to go quietly into the night but rage is endearing if you are not at the receiving end. She says what we think in certain absurd situations, which is not a diplomatic route and leads to her downfall, but at least she isn’t full of malarkey. Her honesty and willingness to stick up for herself explains why she yearns to live in a different time and is able to imitate the voices of brash famous figures. She is a New Yorker, and it requires a certain amount of grittiness and steel to survive. The deck may be stacked, but she won’t let it stand unnoticed. Rudeness will be met with rudeness. It isn’t a classy way of living, but it is never boring.
As a born and bred New Yorker, it was such a joy to watch Can You Ever Forgive Me?, especially with all the visits to the bookshops, which are a dying breed. I know that some critics considered the film as cold, but I read everything as warm and understood that living in Manhattan narrows the focus and heightens one’s desperation. It makes you want to hang on to what little you have without reflecting whether or not it would be better to let go for something more. The end of the movie isn’t exactly a happy one in the traditional sense, but it is on a fundamental, basic level because she gets to keep the two things that are most important to her.
Can You Ever Forgive Me? crackled with the instant bonhomie with Lee and Jack Hock, who become fast friends and co-conspirators. Richard E. Grant plays Jack, and anyone familiar with his role as Jasper in Girls will not be surprised that he excels as a male Blanche Devereaux type figure still up to shenanigans that he should have grown out of, but now put him in peril. When he reassuringly knocks on Lee’s door and says, “I don’t mind,” it immediately turned a key for me that made me like and trust him too. The Chinese food at home scene was so New York. I was impressed by the consistency of the film because it showed him the same charitable focus that it did for Lee.
Thank God that I rarely drink because I can’t recognize the signs of being an alcoholic to save my life. I have now watched A Private War, At Eternity’s Gate and Can You Ever Forgive Me?, and I am utterly surprised when people classify the characters as alcoholics whereas I considered them people who really enjoy alcohol because they are not fall down drunk. I always forget that there are functional alcoholics. It is the only explanation why Lee did not realize that she was living in such unacceptable conditions.
During the cabaret scene, it is my failing, not the movie’s, but I didn’t understand why Lee was so moved by that performance. I think that it was supposed to be a pivotal scene, and I have no idea what I missed. It also didn’t help that I was in a dreadfully disruptive audience. How is it possible to sit in an empty row and still have to get up in the middle of the movie so someone could get to the aisle? How did you get here? Nobody is supposed to be here.
While you could wait to see Can You Ever Forgive Me? at home, I would urge you to see it in theaters to support independent films directed by women starring women. If you are one of those people who bemoan the state of popular culture and are avoiding McCarthy films as a result of this disdain, then you definitely need to see this movie to financially positively reinforce her decision to star in a movie that departs from her usual broad comedy schtick.