![]() Lee’s playful inventiveness and flamboyant attitudes do more than fuse with recklessly self-destructive behavior they also incite and inspire it. Above all, Heller achieves an extraordinary, tense balance of moods and tones that yields sharp dramatic insight. The gestures have a pugnacious elegance the text (from a script by Nicole Holofcener and Jeff Whitty) is rich in epigrammatic flair. Lee brusquely finishes her tumbler of Scotch, dumps the ice cubes into the garbage can under her desk, and puts the glass into her tote bag before leaving. Lee, a proofreader working an overnight shift in a law firm and an object of her younger colleagues’ derision (which she repays in sarcasm), is fired on the spot, not for drinking on the job (which she’s brazenly doing) but for cursing out the young supervisor who reproaches her. The action begins in 1991 and is set in Manhattan. It is a fiercely composed, historically informed, and richly textured film, as insightful regarding the particularities of the protagonist as it is on the artistic life-and on the life of its times. The film tells the story of the real-life writer and literary forger Lee Israel, and is based on Israel’s memoir of the same title. ![]() ![]() But it’s clear, from the very first scene, that the movie, directed by Marielle Heller, is far more than just a showcase for McCarthy’s artistry. ![]() ![]() Melissa McCarthy has been in need of a substantial dramatic role for quite a while, and in “Can You Ever Forgive Me?,” which opens on Friday, she gets one-and makes the most of it. ![]()
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