"Better a fallen rocket than never a burst of light."
~ Tom Stoppard, The Invention of Love

Monday, February 18, 2019

Can You Ever Forgive Me? (2018, R)


This one came to my local theater back when it was released, but barely – it was only around for a week or two, and it came out amid a number of other movies I wanted to see, so I missed it, despite being really interested in it.  Although it’s coming out on DVD tomorrow, I knew I wouldn’t have time to rent it and see it before the Oscars, but luckily, it was still playing in one discount theater within reasonable-ish driving range.

The true story of Lee Israel, a frustrated entertainment biographer struggling to make ends meet because “no one wants another biography about Fanny Brice.”  In urgent need of cash, she stumbles upon a unique, albeit criminal, means of generating funds:  forging embellished letters from the stars of yesteryear.  By imitating the voices of Dorothy Parker, Noël Coward, and more, slipping in hints of salaciousness to garner heftier payouts from collectors, Lee feels she’s finally taken control of her own destiny.  The only question is, how long can she keep the racket going?

I thought this movies was excellent.  The plot is tight, with the right amounts of tension, humor, and character study worked into this fine con-woman tale.  I love seeing the little details about the tricks of Lee’s trade and the way her Achilles’ heel as a biographer – she’s so good at disappearing behind her subject matter that no one knows who she is, thus having no interest in giving her an advance – is her secret weapon here.  I also just enjoy the particular world that the film inhabits, full of rare book shops, collectors’ auctions, and people who take such relish in the (supposed) correspondence of celebrities who’ve long since left us.  It’s no surprise to me that the film was nominated for Best Adapted Screenplay, although I also want to highlight Marielle Heller’s direction, which strikes such a great tone throughout.

The film’s other nominations are for the acting, Melissa McCarthy for Leading Actress and Richard E. Grant for Supporting Actor, and both of them are superb.  McCarthy’s Lee is a prickly grouch who doesn’t play well with others, but she also brings out the sympathy in her character.  Lee is driven, not just by her immediate need for money, but also by her gnawing sense that she ought to have done more with her life by now, and it’s neat to see just how fulfilled she is by her forgery work.  I do think the Academy has a tendency to get a little overexcited when traditionally-comedic actors take on more dramatic roles, but for me, this is a case akin to Jim Carrey’s performance in Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, in which the praise is wholly justified.  Grant, meanwhile, is clearly having a ball as Lee’s ne’er-do-well friend Jack.  They’re two kind-of-awful people who are oddly compatible together, and McCarthy and Grant are stellar in all their scenes together.  The film also features Jane Curtin and Marc Evan Jackson (best known to me as Shawn on The Good Place.)

Warnings

Drinking/smoking/drug use, some gross-out moments, language, and sexual references.

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