Can You Ever Forgive Me?

Marielle Heller, 2018, USA, Colour, 106 mins, Certificate: 15

This is a film you can’t expect, resist, or live without. Existing perfectly on the in-between, it tells the story of real life biographer of the Hollywood greats, Lee Israel, who turns her art into – ingenious and lucrative – fraud when her style falls out of taste and she can no longer be published. In this she is helped by her new, kind-hearted but not particularly trustworthy best friend, Jack Hock, and by risking losing everything in the process she finally finds her true voice.

In-between life and fiction, reality and art, true lies and lying truths, sweetness and bitterness, drama and comedy, winning and losing, biography and autobiography, this is a big little film that fits perfectly in the here and now, as it silently speaks (highly entertaining) volumes for these strange times of ours, of fake news, alternative facts and even #metoo, as it is basically a two women’s show.

While the multi-talented, writer, actor and director Marielle Heller follows her audacious directorial debut, “The Diary of a Teenage Girl” (2015) with this slow-burning suspense dramedy and becomes a bonafide Hollywood household name (the highly anticipated, already considered an Oscar contender, “A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood” with Tom Hanks is her next endeavour), star Melissa McCarthy (“Bridesmaids”, “Spy”) delivers a career best, fearless performance, proving that she is so much more than just a brilliant comedian.

The latter, (for Best performance by an Actress in a Leading Role), along with the marvelous Richard E Grand (for Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role), who brings Hock to cinematic life as an apt progression of his eponymous character in the career defining “Withnail & I” (1987), as well as the eloquent Nicole Holofcener and Jeff Whitty (for Best Adapted Screenplay) scored Oscar and BAFTA nominations. And in our books, they should have won.

Oh well. Enough said. Come and see… can you (ever) believe them?

Reviews:

★★★★ ““Can You Ever Forgive Me?” is at once a low-stakes crime drama, a buddy comedy, a period piece and a loving tribute to a woman who at this point in her life and career did not feel loved… [And it] comes from a place of understanding and love that few other biopics do, and it makes this difficult character a joy to meet.” Monica Castillo, rogerebert.com

“… McCarthy elevates the material at every opportunity, and whenever the camera lingers on her expressions, she’s a study in contradictions — tough and tender all at once, unsure which side of that spectrum to unleash. It’s dizzying to watch her world fall apart as she scrambles to hold the scraps together. ” Eric Kohn, Indie Wire

★★★★ “There is a long and noble tradition of Hollywood movies explaining “difficult” female characters (in a way that they don’t with men) by revealing that these characters are either grieving for a child (Three Billboards) or they’re mentally unstable (Monster) or mentally unstable (Black Swan) or mentally unstable (Misery). Or Margaret Thatcher (The Iron Lady). The revelation of McCarthy’s turn is that she’s just allowed to be, without apology, without schmaltz.” Kevin Maher, The Times

“It’s in the latter half that the film segues away from true crime saga and into melancholy study of stifled queer desire, and it’s all the more nourishing and trenchant for it. Heller made significant waves with her spiky debut offering The Diary of a Teenage Girl, and with this follow-up effort she’s managed to do what Israel wouldn’t/couldn’t: take a bite of the mainstream cookie while still producing a challenging and textured work of original art.” David Jenkins, Little White Lies