Can You Ever Forgive Me?

[the science eel]

A treat. Melissa McCarthy was astonishing. Lovely melancholy tone to the whole thing.

[fucking ponderous]

I haven't seen this but I've seen that Richard E Grant's been nominated for an Oscar for it and it's lovely seeing videos of him on Twitter and such all excited. Withnail finally having his day.

[Pearly-Dewdrops Drops]

Great movie though I did feel a certain portion of the ending was a bid maudlin just because it was so abrupt.

People on here have disagreed, but I've always thought Melissa McCarthy is extremely talented (both comedically and not) stuck doing mostly garbage movies, so to see her nominated for an Oscar is great.

[BlodwynPig]

What's it about?

[Goldentony]

What's it about?

S'ABAHHHT PEANUTS

[Mister Six]

What's it about?

Female forger (McCarthy) and her alcoholic luvvie pal (Grant) get into trouble after she starts selling fake correspondence for big money. Based on a true story.

[BlodwynPig]

Female forger (McCarthy) and her alcoholic luvvie pal (Grant) get into trouble after she starts selling fake correspondence for big money. Based on a true story.

thanks

[SteveDave]

I did like REG shouting "BOOZE!" I was hoping he'd ask for cake too.

[Shoulders?-Stomach!]

Wonderful film

Understated performance in the central role along with a marvellous Withnail-esque sidekick turn, a great double act.

We all enjoyed it. Dark humour, some beautiful shots of Manhattan, and very little sympathy or Hollywoody sudden character change/redemption on show.

[QDRPHNC]

Saw this on a whim last night and didn't care for it at all.

It wasn't deep enough to work as a character study, nor well-plotted and paced enough to work as a piece of a suspense, watching as the net draws tighter on Israel. In fact, I would say some of the pacing was downright strange - things seem like they're about to kick off during the Pixies montage, but then don't - the next scene is just McCarthy figuring out her next, similar-to-the-last scam, with no immediate repercussions. So why put the Pixies montage there?

A reasonably astute viewer could guess that Israel didn't have the confidence to write in her own voice, but it is left almost entirely unexplored thematically - up until the courtroom scene, when McCarthy states outright to the audience would should have been woven throughout. And McCarthy's motivations are almost non-existent beyond "she needs money and is unemployable because she's an ass".

And other things just didn't make sense. All the dealers learn about McCarthy's scam, but seemingly within days are happy to go back to buying unauthenticated letters from a sketchy guy for cash? It may be based on a true story, but it didn't ring true to me as a viewer. Nor did the final scene between McCarthy and Grant, which seemed to be striving for some kind of emotional payoff that hadn't been earned. And as for the very last scene? "Haha, Mr Book Dealer, you got scammed lol" kind of undercut any sort of empathy we may have (accidentally, due to the hamfistedness of the whole thing) developed for McCarthy.

Grant is always fun. McCarthy was fine, but unremarkable. Jane Curtin was good. I don't regret seeing it, it was an interesting story, but not a good movie. Felt very much like a wasted opportunity, that there was much that could have been explored about the authenticity of an artists voice, the moral ambiguities of the marketplace, having confidence in oneself as an artist, being true to yourself vs. playing the game...

C-