Review of Can You Ever Forgive Me? (2018) by Brent_Marchant — 25 Oct 2018

As a biopic that's about as good as they get, this engaging, smartly written tale about a literary scoundrel and her scheming sidekick delivers a banquet of laughs, tears and a dash of inspired larceny, all wrapped up in an intelligent cinematic package.

Melissa McCarthy delivers a stellar performance as talented but unsuccessful author Lee Israel, who resorts to forging literary letters as a means to support herself when book sales falter. Aided by scalliwag Richard E.

Grant, this unlikely duo stumbles their way through a minefield of high-brow crime, seeking to get away with inspired but flawed acts of fraud against potential victims who are ultimately smarter than the would-be ingenious crooks.

Good fun, heartfelt emotions and a delicious twist on crime tales all rolled into one. Nice to see a picture that refuses to dumb itself down to appeal to the lowest common denominator.