In this real story full of sadness and compassion, this year's Oscar nominee Melissa McCarthy presents her best work so far, "Can you ever forgive me," to play the role of talented writer Lee Israel in the 1970s and 1980s. Biography of some celebrities. The author (Li Israel) lived a life full of contradictions of access to the best-selling books in the New York Times, followed by a career failure and my life makes her jobless and without a source of material to turn her life to another path more dangerous using her literary skill in counterfeiting.
The beginning
The first scenes of “Can you ever forgive me” begin with a 50-year-old frustrated, indifferent blunt-looking woman touring New York City in cold, foggy weather. The sunny life communicates with human beings only in the narrowest possible way. She has a lot of violent irony that does not prevent herself from revealing it to anyone who is angry with her.
A film that reconsiders these socially marginalized characters for their different choices.
Since the first scenes, we do not see the love and attention of (Li Israel) only her old cat, which was a gift from her ex-girlfriend, and do not hesitate to treat her attempt to sell books to save this only part in the world that gives her love and acceptance as it is.
Master the game
When Israel tries hard to get the money, she turns to her former agent to publish a new book about theater actress Fannie Price. And that nobody cares about the biographies of celebrities. Now criticizing her for not listening to her advice to enter the game of propaganda, drowning in her problems and stay away from public life.
The screenplay here makes the most important point ..
How to reach the real talent to achieve literary success and decent life at the same time?
Should the author transform herself and her work into a marketable commodity?
How can a talented writer be forced to resort to illegal activity, simply to pay rent and find a living? Do literary occupations really have no guaranteed return to continuity?
Perhaps you can have successes in this area for some time, but it is very possible to find yourself out of this success if you do not master the game well to become middle-aged suddenly a human suffering to survive!
But does Israel have these qualities that enable it to continue?
On the contrary, she hates people and prefers alcohol and spending time with her cat rather than talking to other people. So her agent quietly tells her to go out and look for another job;
Contradictory
It is rare to find a film led by a man and a woman over 50 ideally struggling to survive amidst fragments of the past from various successes realizing alternative ways, which are inevitable and both are more aware of the loneliness they are now attached to as a result of their unfamiliar life choices.
Lee Israel meets Jack Hawk, who plays Richard Egrant at their favorite gay bar.
Jack Hawk's character appears as a counter-sector in almost every direction to Lee Israel. She is comfortable with being annoying and angry.
She lives a life of gloom and frustration as dead insects lie on her pillow.
The quality of the story or the voice of the author.
"Can you ever forgive me," based on the memoirs of Li Israel with the same title, tells the story of a skilled author of literary falsification. It is somehow a tribute to the false letters of Israel carved under the names of deceased celebrities such as Dorothy Parker and Knoll Card.
Those brokers who buy letters from semi-impoverished Israel and sell them to intellectual clients, praise the words they have made in the voices of others and the perfect fake tale. Through her, she was able to pay off all her debts and live for a while in a dignified life, treating her cat and even giving her new boyfriend Jack Hawk some entertainment.
A victim or a culprit?
Not only were the victims of counterfeiting brokers who paid for this deception, but Israel (Melissa McCarthy) also appeared to be one of those victims for its literary fraud. As she tries to avoid the FBI's detection of counterfeit operations, she becomes more angry and reckless. She steals an original message from a museum and replaces it with a fake one. She then loses her cat and her only friend, Jack, who accepts her presence. Israel is finally arrested, tried and sentenced to six months of House arrest and five years of federal surveillance. But during the scene near the end of the film, when the judge (Israel) gives the opportunity to explain herself, at first she frankly challenges: "I can't say I regret my actions in many ways, this was the best time of my life."
Self discovery
In the end, we see Israel in her apartment, writing on a new computer that she is smiling. I brought a new cat whose house looks clean and full of light. A bouquet of roses reigns in a sense of satisfaction, a feeling of less dramatic but quieter writing, whose writing remains its decisive strength and ability. Now she discovers herself to produce her own work and a story she actually starred in.
The film strongly suggests that she can return to work as a real writer without fraud.
Visual aspects of the film.
Unpleasant clothing features full of frustration and anger expected to explode Thus, we see (Li Israel) in her first scenes and is in search of any job to ease the debt matched her frustrated psyche with her old untidy old furniture filled with garbage and food waste smells of it, the cat's accumulated turd Under her bed she came to suit someone who lost all hopes no one wants after she disappeared from her life, her only friend leaving her a cat sticking to the last moment.
My opinion in the film
The director Mariel Heller was able to make us sympathize with Lee Israel in many scenes. Suitable for a late-life woman living in the big New York City who doesn't have much beauty alone and her life is foggy like this cold and rainy atmosphere.
The lighting was dim in most scenes of the film, whether natural or artificial lighting, but only a few scenes with the use of photomontage in the fraud operations carried out by (Li Israel)
My Ratings
Scenario 8/10
The Story 8.5/10
Directing 9/10
The acting 9.5/10