''Can You Ever Forgive Me?'' is a 2018 American

biographical A biography, or simply bio, is a detailed description of a person's life. It involves more than just basic facts like education, work, relationships, and death; it portrays a person's experience of these life events. Unlike a profile or curric ...

drama film In film and television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. The drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular ...

directed by

Marielle Heller Marielle Stiles Heller (born October 1, 1979) is an American filmmaker and actress best known for directing the comedy drama film '' The Diary of a Teenage Girl'' (2015), the biographical drama films '' Can You Ever Forgive Me?'' (2018) and ''A ...

, with a screenplay by

Nicole Holofcener Nicole Holofcener ( ; born March 22, 1960) is an American film and television director and screenwriter. She has directed seven feature films, including '' Walking and Talking'', '' Friends with Money'' and '' Enough Said'', as well as various t ...

and

Jeff Whitty Jeffrey Daniel Whitty (born September 30, 1971) is an American playwright, actor, and screenwriter. For the stage musical '' Avenue Q'', he won the Tony Award for Best Book of a Musical. For his work on the Fox Searchlight film '' Can You Ever ...

based on the 2008 confessional memoir of the same name by

Lee Israel Leonore Carol "Lee" Israel (December 3, 1939 – December 24, 2014) was an American author known for committing literary forgery. Her 2008 confessional autobiography ''Can You Ever Forgive Me?'' was adapted into the 2018 film of the same name s ...

Melissa McCarthy Melissa Ann McCarthy (born August 26, 1970) is an American actress, comedian, screenwriter, and producer. She is the recipient of List of awards and nominations received by Melissa McCarthy, numerous accolades, including two Primetime Emmy Award ...

stars as Israel, and the story follows her attempts to revitalize her failing writing career by

forging Forging is a manufacturing process involving the shaping of metal using localized compression (physics), compressive forces. The blows are delivered with a hammer (often a power hammer) or a die (manufacturing), die. Forging is often classif ...

letters from deceased authors and playwrights. The film also features

Richard E. Grant Richard E. Grant (born Richard Grant Esterhuysen; 5 May 1957) is an Eswatini-born English actor and presenter. He made his film debut as Withnail in the comedy '' Withnail and I'' (1987). Grant received critical acclaim for his role as Jack H ...

Dolly Wells Dorothy Perpetua Wells (born Gatacre; 5 December 1971)Burke's Peerage, Baronetage and Knightage, vol. III, 2003, pg 3046 is an English actress. She co-wrote and starred in the Sky Living series '' Doll & Em'' (2014–2015) with Emily Mortimer, ...

Jane Curtin Jane Therese Curtin (born September 6, 1947) is an American actress and comedienne. First coming to prominence as an original cast member on the hit TV comedy series ''Saturday Night Live'' in 1975, she went on to win back-to-back Emmy Awards ...

Anna Deavere Smith Anna Deavere Smith (born September 18, 1950) is an American actress, playwright, and professor. She is known for her roles as National Security Advisor Dr. Nancy McNally in ''The West Wing'' (2000–06), hospital administrator Gloria Akalitus i ...

Stephen Spinella Stephen Spinella (born October 11, 1956) is an American stage, television, and film actor. Early life Spinella was born in Naples, Italy, to a father who was an American naval airplane mechanic. He grew up in Glendale, Arizona, and graduated fr ...

, and

Ben Falcone Benjamin Scott Falcone (born August 25, 1973) is an American actor, comedian and filmmaker. He is married to actress Melissa McCarthy, with whom he frequently collaborates. Falcone made his directorial debut in 2014 with ''Tammy (film), Tammy'', ...

in supporting roles. Israel took the title from an apologetic line in a letter in which she posed as

Dorothy Parker Dorothy Parker (née Rothschild; August 22, 1893 – June 7, 1967) was an American poet and writer of fiction, plays and screenplays based in New York; she was known for her caustic wisecracks, and eye for 20th-century urban foibles. Parker ros ...

. The film had its world premiere at the

Telluride Film Festival The Telluride Film Festival (TFF) is a film festival held annually in Telluride, Colorado, during Labor Day, Labor Day weekend (the first Monday in September). The 51st Telluride Film Festival, 51st edition took place on August 30–September ...

on September 1, 2018, and was released in the United States on October 19, 2018, by

Fox Searchlight Pictures Searchlight Pictures, Inc., formerly known as Fox Searchlight Pictures, is an American arthouse film production and distribution company, which since 2019 is owned by Walt Disney Studios, a division of the Disney Entertainment segment of the ...

, grossing $12 million against a production budget of $10 million, and received critical acclaim. The

National Board of Review The National Board of Review of Motion Pictures is a non-profit organization of New York City area film enthusiasts. Its awards, which are announced in early December, are considered the first major harbinger of the film awards season that ...

named the film as one of the top ten films of 2018, and, for their performances, McCarthy and Grant earned nominations for Best Actress and Best Supporting Actor, respectively, at the

91st Academy Awards The 91st Academy Awards ceremony, presented by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS), honored the best 2018 in film, films of 2018 and took place on February 24, 2019, at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood, Los Angeles. During th ...

, the

76th Golden Globe Awards The 76th ceremony of the Golden Globe Awards honored the best in film and American television of 2018, as chosen by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association (HFPA). Produced by Dick Clark Productions and the HFPA, the ceremony was broadcast live ...

, and the

72nd British Academy Film Awards The 72nd British Academy Film Awards, more commonly known as the BAFTAs, were held on 10 February 2019 at the Royal Albert Hall in London, honouring the best national and foreign films of 2018. Presented by the British Academy of Film and Televi ...

, among other ceremonies. Holofcener and Whitty were nominated for the

Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay The Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay is the Academy Award for the best screenplay adapted from previously established material. The most frequently adapted media are novels, but other adapted narrative formats include stage plays, mus ...

, and won the

Writers Guild of America Award for Best Adapted Screenplay The Writers Guild of America Award for Best Adapted Screenplay is one of the three screenwriting Writers Guild of America Awards, focused specifically for film. The Writers Guild of America began making the distinction between an original screenp ...

Plot

In 1991, following the critical and commercial failure of her biography of Estée Lauder, author

struggles with financial troubles,

writer's block Writer's block is a non-medical condition, primarily associated with writing, in which an author is either unable to produce new work or experiences a creative slowdown. Writer's block has various degrees of severity, from difficulty in coming ...

, and alcoholism. Although she hopes to write a biography of comedian

Fanny Brice Fania Borach (October 29, 1891 – May 29, 1951), known professionally as Fanny Brice or Fannie Brice, was an American comedian, Illustrated Songs, illustrated song model, singer, and actress who made many stage, radio, and film appearances. Sh ...

, her agent, Marjorie, sharply rejects the idea and explains that Lee, with her difficult personality, is responsible for her own career slump. With Marjorie unable to secure her an advance for a new book, regardless of subject matter, Lee resorts to selling her possessions to cover living expenses. She sells a personal letter she received long ago from

Katharine Hepburn Katharine Houghton Hepburn (May 12, 1907 – June 29, 2003) was an American actress whose Katharine Hepburn on screen and stage, career as a Golden Age of Hollywood, Hollywood leading lady spanned six decades. She was known for her headstrong ...

to a used bookstore merchant and autograph dealer named Anna. Lee begins spending time with old acquaintance Jack Hock. Visiting a Manhattan library's special collections department to research Fanny Brice, Lee discovers two letters typewritten by Brice. She removes one of them from the building and shows it to Anna. Anna makes Lee an offer that is lower than what she was expecting due to the letter's bland content. Lee returns home and uses a typewriter to add a postscript to the letter. Lee returns to Anna's store, where Anna, amused by what "Fanny Brice" wrote "several decades ago," offers Lee $350. Lee then starts forging and selling letters "by" deceased celebrities, incorporating intimate details to command high prices. Anna, a fan of Lee's biographies, tries to initiate a romantic relationship, but may have another motive as on their dinner date she gives Lee a short story she has written hoping for Lee to critique it. Moments after they leave the restaurant, the socially phobic Lee appears to rebuff Anna. In some of Lee's letters, she has

Noël Coward Sir Noël Peirce Coward (16 December 189926 March 1973) was an English playwright, composer, director, actor, and singer, known for his wit, flamboyance, and what ''Time (magazine), Time'' called "a sense of personal style, a combination of c ...

make references to his homosexuality. A used book dealer named Paul buys one of them from Lee and then sends it to a friend of his who knew Coward. The recipient doubts that Coward would have taken such a risk and relays his suspicions. Paul raises an alarm that leads to Lee's customers

blacklisting Blacklisting is the action of a group or authority compiling a blacklist of people, countries or other entities to be avoided or distrusted as being deemed unacceptable to those making the list; if people are on a blacklist, then they are considere ...

her. Unable to sell more forgeries, she has Jack sell the letters on her behalf. His customers do not know he has a connection to Lee. She also starts stealing authentic letters from libraries and archives for Jack to sell, replacing them with forged duplicates. While Lee is out of town committing one such theft, her cat dies under Jack's care. She ends their friendship, but continues their partnership out of necessity. The

FBI The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is the domestic Intelligence agency, intelligence and Security agency, security service of the United States and Federal law enforcement in the United States, its principal federal law enforcement ag ...

arrests Jack while he is attempting a sale. He cooperates with them, resulting in Lee being served with a court summons. She retains a lawyer, who advises her to show contrition by getting a job, doing community service, and joining

Alcoholics Anonymous Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) is a global, peer-led Mutual aid, mutual-aid fellowship focused on an abstinence-based recovery model from alcoholism through its spiritually inclined twelve-step program. AA's Twelve Traditions, besides emphasizing anon ...

. In court, Lee says she enjoyed creating the forgeries, but that her actions were ultimately not worth it because she lost her cat and friend. The judge sentences Lee to five years'

probation Probation in criminal law is a period of supervision over an offence (law), offender, ordered by the court often in lieu of incarceration. In some jurisdictions, the term ''probation'' applies only to community sentences (alternatives to incar ...

and six months'

house arrest House arrest (also called home confinement, or nowadays electronic monitoring) is a legal measure where a person is required to remain at their residence under supervision, typically as an alternative to imprisonment. The person is confined b ...

. During her house arrest, Lee skips her AA meeting to meet with Jack, who is dying of

AIDS The HIV, human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) is a retrovirus that attacks the immune system. Without treatment, it can lead to a spectrum of conditions including acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS). It is a Preventive healthcare, pr ...

, at a bar. They reconcile, and Jack grants Lee permission to write a memoir about their escapades. Sometime later, while Lee is passing a bookstore, she sees a

letter she forged that is now on sale for $1,900. She writes the store owner a sarcastic note from the deceased Parker revealing that the letter is a fake. After reading the note, the owner goes to retrieve the letter, but then decides to keep it on display.

Cast

Production

Development and casting

In 2011, when the project was first conceived,

Sam Rockwell Sam Rockwell (born November 5, 1968) is an American actor. He won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor, for playing troubled police officer Jason Dixon in ''Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri'' (2017). He was nominated i ...

was set to play the character of Jack Hock. In April 2015, it was announced that

Julianne Moore Julie Anne Smith (born December 3, 1960), known professionally as Julianne Moore, is an American actress and children's author. Prolific in film since the early 1990s, she is known for her portrayals of emotionally troubled women in independent ...

would play Lee Israel, with

set to direct from her own screenplay. On May 14, 2015,

Chris O'Dowd Christopher O'Dowd (born 9 October 1979) is an Irish actor and comedian. He received wide attention as Roy Trenneman, one of the lead characters in the Channel 4 comedy ''The IT Crowd'', which ran for four seasons from 2006 to 2010. He has star ...

joined the cast. In July 2015, Moore and Holofcener dropped out of the project due to "creative conflicts."Making of 'Can You Ever Forgive Me?': How Melissa McCarthy Stepped In for Julianne Moore
/ref> In May 2016,

—whose husband,

, had been cast in a supporting role in Holofcener's film—was confirmed to have been cast as Israel, with

directing from Holofcener's script. In January 2017,

, and

Jennifer Westfeldt Jennifer Westfeldt (born February 2, 1970) is an American actress, director, screenwriter, and producer. She is best known for co-writing, co-producing, and starring in the 2002 indie film '' Kissing Jessica Stein'', for which she received an I ...

joined the cast. Westfeldt does not appear in the finished film, as the storyline featuring her character was deleted.

Filming

Filming, which took place in New York City, began in January 2017 and concluded on March 2, 2017.

Release

''Can You Ever Forgive Me?'' had its world premiere at the

on September 1, 2018, and also screened at the

Toronto International Film Festival The Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF, often stylized as tiff) is one of the most prestigious and largest publicly attended film festivals in the world. Founded in 1976, the festival takes place every year in early September. The organi ...

that month. It was released in the United States on October 19, 2018. The film was dedicated to its subject, author Leonore Carol Israel, who was born on December 3, 1939, and died on December 24, 2014.

Reception

Box office

The film grossed $8.8 million in the United States and Canada, and $3.7 million in other territories, for a total worldwide box office gross of $12.5 million, against a production budget of $10 million. ''Can You Ever Forgive Me?'' grossed $150,000 from five theaters during its opening weekend. Its second weekend, it earned $380,000 from 25 theaters. It expanded to 180 theaters for its third weekend, and earned $1.08 million. The film grossed $1.5 million from 391 theaters its fourth weekend. During its fifth weekend, it earned $880,000 from 555 theaters, bringing the total box office gross to over $5 million. During its 11th weekend in release, the film crossed $7.5 million stateside.

Critical response

On film

review aggregator A review aggregator is a system that collects reviews and ratings of products and services, such as films, books, video games, music, software, hardware, or cars. This system then stores the reviews to be used for supporting a website where user ...

website

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review aggregator, review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee ...

, the film holds an approval rating of based on 320 reviews, with an average score of ; the site's "critics consensus" reads: "Deftly directed and laced with dark wit, ''Can You Ever Forgive Me?'' proves a compelling showcase for deeply affecting work from Richard E. Grant and Melissa McCarthy." On

Metacritic Metacritic is an American website that aggregates reviews of films, television shows, music albums, video games, and formerly books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created ...

, the film has a

weighted average The weighted arithmetic mean is similar to an ordinary arithmetic mean (the most common type of average), except that instead of each of the data points contributing equally to the final average, some data points contribute more than others. The ...

score of 87 out of 100 based on 53 critics, indicating "universal acclaim". Peter Debruge of ''

Variety Variety may refer to: Arts and entertainment Entertainment formats * Variety (radio) * Variety show, in theater and television Films * ''Variety'' (1925 film), a German silent film directed by Ewald Andre Dupont * ''Variety'' (1935 film), ...

'' wrote that "it takes an actress as delightful as elissa McCarthyto make such a woman not just forgivable but downright lovable", but was critical of the film's promotion, writing: "One gets the impression that

Fox Searchlight Searchlight Pictures, Inc., formerly known as Fox Searchlight Pictures, is an American arthouse film production and distribution company, which since 2019 is owned by Walt Disney Studios, a division of the Disney Entertainment segment of the ...

is trying to hide (or at least downplay) the homosexual side of this story: Lee was a lesbian, while the openly gay Jack

ock Ock or OCK may refer to: * River Ock (disambiguation), three rivers in England * Ok (Korean name), also spelt Ock ** Ock Joo-hyun (born 1980), South Korean K-pop singer and musical theatre actress * Océano Club de Kerkennah, a Tunisian football c ...

can hardly pass a fire hydrant without asking for its phone number." ''

Film Journal International ''Film Journal International'' was a motion-picture industry trade magazine published by the American company Prometheus Global Media. It was a sister publication of '' Adweek'', '' Billboard'', ''The Hollywood Reporter'', and other periodical ...

'' deemed McCarthy's performance as "stunning", and wrote her previous film roles "could not anticipate how fearlessly and credibly she inhabits Lee Israel". Eric Kohn of '' IndieWire'' called the film a "charming melancholic comedy" in which "Heller channels the dark urban milieu of vintage

Woody Allen Heywood Allen (born Allan Stewart Konigsberg; November 30, 1935) is an American filmmaker, actor, and comedian whose career spans more than six decades. Allen has received many List of awards and nominations received by Woody Allen, accolade ...

", and wrote that McCarthy's performance "elevates the material at every opportunity".

Accolades

Notes

References

External links

* * * * * {{Dorian Award for LGBTQ Film of the Year 2018 films 2018 independent films 2018 LGBTQ-related films 2010s American films 2010s biographical films 2010s English-language films American biographical films American LGBTQ-related films Biographical films about writers English-language biographical films English-language independent films Films about bibliophilia Films about con artists Films based on memoirs Films directed by Marielle Heller Films set in 1991 Films set in New York City Films shot in New York City Films with screenplays by Nicole Holofcener Fox Searchlight Pictures films Gay-related films Lesbian-related films LGBTQ-related buddy films LGBTQ-related films based on actual events LGBTQ-related independent films Satellite Award–winning films