Can You Ever Forgive Me? (15.)
Directed by Marielle Heller.
Starring Melissa McCarthy, Richard E. Grant, Dolly Wells, Ben Falcone, Stephan Spinella, Jane Curtin. 106 mins.
This is a true crime confession but as felonies go, writing forged typed letters purporting to be by literary figures such as Dorothy Parker and Noel Coward, it is one of the minor ones. Likewise, as studies of despair and loneliness go, this is one of the lighter one, but possibly all the better for that.
In the early 90s, Lee Israel (McCarthy) was a once successful biographer and magazine writer scratching out a living in New York, whose main interests were her cat, scotch and bridge burning. Such was her isolation that when she fell into her little criminal endeavour, the only person she confided in was her drinking buddy, flamboyant gay-about-town Jack Hock (E. Grant.)
It's a gently compelling, often humorous telling. McCarthy's comedy characters are usually motormouthed misanthropes. Her Israel is much the same but broken down, all but defeated. The barbed tongued insults barely function as a defence mechanism because she is too withdrawn from human society to need it. RE.G's Mr Hock is really a rerun of his Withnail performance. They work well together, and their final scene together is genuinely touching.
Israel's gift was for being able to get inside the voice of another character from a different era. The film's New York is a wintry world of low lit bars, seedy rooms and stuffy bookshop that seems to be from the fifties or earlier. When a tune from The Pixies is heard on the soundtrack is a shock, like being woken from a dream.
Directed by Marielle Heller.
Starring Melissa McCarthy, Richard E. Grant, Dolly Wells, Ben Falcone, Stephan Spinella, Jane Curtin. 106 mins.
This is a true crime confession but as felonies go, writing forged typed letters purporting to be by literary figures such as Dorothy Parker and Noel Coward, it is one of the minor ones. Likewise, as studies of despair and loneliness go, this is one of the lighter one, but possibly all the better for that.
In the early 90s, Lee Israel (McCarthy) was a once successful biographer and magazine writer scratching out a living in New York, whose main interests were her cat, scotch and bridge burning. Such was her isolation that when she fell into her little criminal endeavour, the only person she confided in was her drinking buddy, flamboyant gay-about-town Jack Hock (E. Grant.)
It's a gently compelling, often humorous telling. McCarthy's comedy characters are usually motormouthed misanthropes. Her Israel is much the same but broken down, all but defeated. The barbed tongued insults barely function as a defence mechanism because she is too withdrawn from human society to need it. RE.G's Mr Hock is really a rerun of his Withnail performance. They work well together, and their final scene together is genuinely touching.
Israel's gift was for being able to get inside the voice of another character from a different era. The film's New York is a wintry world of low lit bars, seedy rooms and stuffy bookshop that seems to be from the fifties or earlier. When a tune from The Pixies is heard on the soundtrack is a shock, like being woken from a dream.
