Can You Ever Forgive Me?

Can You Ever Forgive Me? is a 2018 American biographical comedy-mystery film directed by Marielle Heller, with a screenplay by Nicole Holofcener and Jeff Whitty based on the 2008 confessional memoir of the same name by Lee Israel. Melissa McCarthy stars as Israel, and the story follows her attempts to revitalize her failing writing career by forging letters from deceased authors and playwrights. The film also features Richard E. Grant, Dolly Wells, Jane Curtin, Anna Deavere Smith, Stephen Spinella, and Ben Falcone in supporting roles. Israel took the title from an apologetic line in a letter in which she posed as Dorothy Parker.

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

Plot
In 1991, following the critical and commercial failure of her biography of Estée Lauder, author Lee Israel struggles with financial troubles, writer's block, and alcoholism. Although she hopes to write a biography of comedian Fanny Brice, 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 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 make references to presumably much-younger men with whom he enjoys socializing. A used book dealer named Paul buys one of them from Lee and then sends it to a friend of his who knew Coward, who died less than 20 years ago. Coward's friend becomes suspicious, though the letter does not refer to a sexual act or a man's anatomy. Paul raises an alarm that leads to Lee's customers blacklisting 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 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. 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 and six months' house arrest.

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

Development and casting
In 2011, when the project was first conceived, Sam Rockwell was set to play the character of Jack Hock. In April 2015, it was announced that Julianne Moore would play Lee Israel, with Nicole Holofcener set to direct from her own screenplay. On May 14, 2015, Chris O'Dowd joined the cast. In July 2015, Moore and Holofcener dropped out of the project due to "creative conflicts." In May 2016, Melissa McCarthy—whose husband, Ben Falcone, had been cast in a supporting role in Holofcener's film—was confirmed to have been cast as Israel, with Marielle Heller directing from Holofcener's script. In January 2017, Richard E. Grant, Jane Curtin, Dolly Wells, Anna Deavere Smith, and Jennifer Westfeldt 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 Telluride Film Festival on September 1, 2018, and also screened at the Toronto International Film Festival 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.

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 website Rotten Tomatoes, 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, the film has a weighted average score of 87 out of 100 based on 53 critics, indicating "universal acclaim".

Peter Debruge of Variety wrote that "it takes an actress as delightful as [Melissa McCarthy] to 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 is trying to hide (or at least downplay) the homosexual side of this story: Lee was a lesbian, while the openly gay Jack [Hock] can hardly pass a fire hydrant without asking for its phone number."

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