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Melissa McCarthy

 One of my favorite movies is "Can You Ever Forgive Me?"


A part of me can't believe the funding actually materialized. This is a story of a gay woman, no longer young, who has stopped taking care of herself. (It's not clear that she ever really gave serious thought to hygiene.) The woman is in no way heroic; in fact, she is a criminal. The crime seems to be in a low-stakes category; no buildings explode; no one is murdered. The woman, Lee Israel, just begins falsely attributing letters (fake letters) to Dorothy Parker.

Lee Israel is an obviously gifted writer. She imagines Dorothy recovering from a bad party: "I sense I had too much to drink. Can you ever forgive me? I think, to save time, I might just print out new calling cards, and pass them out at the start of every meeting. And the cards will say: Can you ever forgive me?"

Israel also writes from the voice of Fanny Brice. "I'm worried I have passed on my nose to my child. Should I add a *nose* stipend to the inheritance, so he can just go a doctor and get this matter resolved?"

Lee is so damaged, she can't really form connections with other people. But a part of her is still aware that her loneliness is unhealthy, so she makes an effort. The "effort" scenes are the hardest to watch. An interested young woman says, "I'd love to take you to dinner. Maybe you could read my story? I'm sure it's terrible...." Missing important subtext, Lee shrugs and says, "Well, yes, your story might be terrible." Later, out with a friend, Lee becomes impatient. The friend has been flirting obnoxiously with a waiter; the (surface-level) topic has been hot cinnamon rolls. Lee turns to her friend and says, "How are you gonna eat that cinnamon roll when you have the waiter's cock in your mouth?"

I am rewatching this movie in part because the star, Melissa McCarthy, was named one of the 25 greatest film actors of this current century. (The judge was Manohla Dargis, with help; the inclusion of McCarthy was controversial.) It's great fun to see McCarthy's choices--but, also, the script by Nicole Holofcener is a treat. Holofcener knows how to create interesting people: the agent, smitten with Nora Ephron; the shady shopkeeper who thinks extortion is not extortion; the writer who can't stand people, but who has an intense emotional bond with her cat....

I wish McCarthy would put aside "The Little Mermaid" and try on more hats like her "Israel hat." She has two Oscar nominations now, and I wonder if we'll eventually see a win.
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