Saturday, February 23, 2019

Movie: "Can You Ever Forgive Me?"


Author Lenore "Lee" Israel had a moderately successful career as a magazine writer of celebrity profiles as well as some full length celebrity biographies, but she fell upon hard times in the the early 1990's when her autobiography of cosmetics queen Estee Lauder bombed.  Almost by accident, she hit upon a scheme of forging letters and documents from prominent and deceased authors such as Dorothy Parker and Noel Coward and selling them on the collectibles market.  Inevitably, of course, the whole scheme came crashing down around her.

This story is told in the 2018 movie "Can You Ever Forgive Me?", directed by Marielle Heller and based upon Israel's memoir of the same name.  It stars Melissa McCarthy, taking 


a break form her foul-mouthed persona that she plays in so many film comedies, as Israel.  She shows that she can pull off a dramatic role.  She has been nominated for the Best Actress Oscar for this role.  She won't win, but it was a well deserved nomination.  It costars Richard E. Grant as her friend and cohort in the forgery scheme.  He also has been Oscar nominated, and he may well win the Best Supporting Actor award for this role.

Also appearing in this movie in a small but significant role is Saturday Night Live original cast member Jane Curtin, and it 


was a real kick to see her on screen once again.  And if you want to feel the passage of time, it can be noted that Ms Curtin is now 71 years old.  Which means she was only four years older than me when she broke through on SNL all this years ago.  (For the record, she STILL is only four years older than me.)

The movie also has a great musical soundtrack, including a very cool Paul Simon tune called "Can't Run But".

This was an entertaining movie, and I would recommend it highly.  It gets Three Stars from The Grandstander.


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