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You won’t see a more charming pair of petty criminals than Academy Award nominee Melissa McCarthy and Richard E. Grant in Fox Searchlight Pictures’ “Can You Ever Forgive Me?” Directed by Marielle Heller and written by Nicole Holofcener and Jeff Whitty, the biographical film stars McCarthy and Grant as a pair of outsiders whose friendship is built on dry wit, vicious barbs, and a delightful rejection of societal conventions of decency.
The New York Times says, “Lee Israel may be the single most interesting movie character you will encounter this year.” And USA Today claims that McCarthy’s performance is “supremely soulful and a career best” as the once-successful biographer, now best known for her literary forgeries of the likes of Dorothy Parker, Lillian Hellman, and Noel Coward in the early 1990s. As much a nuanced portrait of the lesbian Jewish writer as it is a darkly comic literary heist, “Can You Ever Forgive Me?” is based on Israel’s 2008 memoir of the same name, its title referencing Parker’s frequently used phrase. Her criminal exploits, an attempt to make ends meet when her writing career stalled, were aided by the rakish grifter Jack Hock, played here by Grant.
United in their disdain of most rules and most people, and their love of a stiff drink at New York’s historic gay bar Julius’, McCarthy’s Israel and Grant’s Hock con bookstores and collectors while forming an unspoken, almost begrudging friendship. Together the two stars harness their inner humanity to create a dynamic that feels totally distinct from any other movie this year.
The notoriously prickly Israel was, as McCarthy points out in the video below, also quite withdrawn—a challenge to portray on film. “Lee was not someone who let down the wall very often,” she says. “She was a very guarded person.” McCarthy had to give expression to self-inflicted isolation, and capture Israel’s irascible nature without verging into cruelty and preventing the audience from feeling for her. This was someone who quoted old movies and preferred the company of cats to lovers or friends; mostly by choice, she marched to the beat of her own drum.
The same could be said for Grant’s wickedly deceitful Hock, whose charm and impish encouragement of Israel’s forgeries open her up to the world from which she’d sheltered herself. Grant lends the character a twinkle in the eye that makes him irresistible, both to his drinking buddy and us. “The way Richard is playing Jack, there’s something so fantastic and larger than life,” says Heller. The two actors immerse themselves so deeply into the characters that by the film’s complicated, heartfelt conclusion, we forget we’re watching McCarthy and Grant.
Check out the behind-the-scenes featurette on “Can You Ever Forgive Me?” below. For more information and to find a screening near you, visit Fox Searchlight’s official site.
