Movie 🎥 Review: “Can You Ever Forgive Me?”. Critics gave it a 98% the users an 81%. Rated: R with a running time of 1 hr and 46 mins with an IMDb of 7.2/10. Cast: Melissa McCarthy, Richard E. Grant, Dolly Wells, Jane Curtin, Anna Deavere Smith, Stephen Spinella, and Ben Falcone.

Lee Israel is a frustrated, hard-drinking author who can barely afford to pay her rent or bills in 1990s New York. Desperate for money, Israel soon hatches a scheme to forge letters by famous writers and sell them to bookstores and collectors. When the dealers start to catch on, Lee recruits a dubious friend to help her continue her self-destructive cycle of trickery and deceit.

Can You Ever Forgive Me? is a 2018 American biographical film directed by Marielle Heller and with a screenplay by Nicole Holofcener and Jeff Whitty, based on the confessional memoir of the same name by Lee Israel.

The film had its world premiere at the Telluride Film Festival on September 1, 2018, and was released in the United States on October 19, 2018, by Fox Searchlight Pictures. The film grossed just $11 million on a $10 million budget, however it received critical acclaim, with major praise drawn towards McCarthy and Grant's performances, and was named by the National Board of Review as one of their top ten films of 2018. For their performances, McCarthy and Grant earned nominations for Best Actress and Best Supporting Actor, respectively, at the 91st Academy Awards, the 76th Golden Globe Awards, and the 72nd British Academy Film Awards, among other ceremonies. Holofcener and Whitty were nominated for the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay and won the Writers Guild of America Award for Best Adapted Screenplay.

As you’re all aware Melissa McCarthy is not known for her dramatic roles, however this film certainly changed that. This is a gripping true story of a struggling Manhattan writer Lee Israel, who in the early 1990s undertook the extraordinary step of falsifying letters from famous people to make a living.

She plays a heavy drinking acid-tongued miserable middle-aged woman who sought friendship in precious few souls, one of them being a mysterious figure on the Upper West Side portrayed by Richard E. Grant, who winds up becoming something of an accomplice to her enterprise. She is desperate to pay her bills. His mysterious story becomes more known as the film progresses. 

In the beginning the pace was kind of slow, however mid way through the film it takes a turn and things get really interesting. All in all I enjoyed this film as did the critics and many other users.

Definitely worth a look. It’s a great story.