There are two sides to Melissa McCarthy. There’s the easy joke of “Fatty falls down, this time she’s a (insert occupation here)” that stand-up comedians have made since she became famous. Then there’s the genuinely inspiring actress who takes big parts in smaller films and makes you wish she’d be a serious dramatic actress more often.
Can You Ever Forgive Me? is one of the latter films. It’s the story of Lee Israel (McCarthy) a best-selling biographer on the wrong side of the success curve now. Forging signatures of famous writers and selling them to pay her rent, Israel finds herself getting deeper into the con. The film follows Israel during this moment of her life, from the first forgery to her eventual arrest by the FBI.
It’s the sort of film that frustrates you when put it in context of the majority of McCarthy’s filmography because she’s a genuinely talented actress.
This is a fairly standard “getting in too deep” sort of drama but it shows off the one thing McCarthy does when she wants to: act. This is a clinic for her and she carries this film to an extraordinary degree. McCarthy was nominated for an Oscar for this film and it’d be a shame if she didn’t win; this is an extraordinary performance most likely to be ignored because it wasn’t in the right kind of film this year.
A handful of EPK pieces and the usual deleted scenes, et al, are included.
20th Century Fox presents Can You Ever Forgive Me? Directed by Marielle Heller. Written by Nicole Holofcener and Jeff Whitty based on the novel of the same name by Lee Israel. Starring Melissa McCarthy, Richard E Grant. Run Time: 106 minutes Rated R. Released on DVD: 2.19.19
