Can You Ever Forgive Me?

Melissa McCarthy delivers a snarling Oscar-nominated performance as a cranky, slovenly, misanthropic Manhattan author who is unable to pay her rent or care for her ailing cat. In 1991 after her unauthorized biography of Estée Lauder flops, Lee Israel (McCarthy) can’t get an advance on a new book about vaudevillian Fanny Brice (aka Funny Girl). Indeed, her long-suffering literary agent (Jane Curtin) suggests that she find a new line of work. Doing library research, frustrated Lee runs across a letter from Fanny Brice. Surreptitiously tucking it away, Lee peddles it and discovers—to her amazement—that a big memorabilia market exists. Since collectors prefer literary spice over stock correspondence, Lee begins embellishing forged letters with caustic witticisms, cleverly channeling Noel Coward, Lillian Hellman, and Dorothy Parker. For authenticity, she collects vintage typewriters and old stationery, dutifully practicing celebrity signatures until she is able to replicate them perfectly. Surly, scotch-swilling Lee reveals her criminal enterprise to her drinking buddy, amiable Jack Hock (Oscar nominee Richard E. Grant), a flamboyantly gay British hustler who takes some of Lee’s counterfeit documents to used bookstores where she might be recognized. Eventually, the FBI catches on, taking Lee to court. Adapting Lee’s titular 2008 memoir (she died at age 75 in 2014), Oscar-nominated screenwriters Nicole Holofcener and Jeff Whitty have crafted a dandy crime caper, which is insightfully directed by Marielle Heller. Hovering between comedy and tragedy, this poignant and engrossing film is recommended. (S. Granger)