#jeff whitty

Jeff Whitty

Gender: Male

Sexuality: Gay

DOB: 30 September 1971

Ethnicity: White - American

The American Theatre Wing Interviews the Creators of “Avenue Q”

Can You Ever Forgive Me? (2018)

Directed by Marielle Heller

I wish Melissa McCarthy would sit down and watch Can You Ever Forgive Me? so she could realize her time is wasted on the comedies she's been cranking out. Films like this one are what her agent should be pointing her towards.

Based on a true story, author Lee Israel (McCarthy) is drowning. She’s behind on her rent, just lost her job, suffers from writer’s block, and her cat - basically her only companion - is sick. Desperate for cash, she begins forging letters from renowned authors with the help of an old friend, Jack Hock (Richard E. Grant).

I love the way this movie creates an internal struggle. Israel is an awful human being. Worse, she isn’t even good at being herself. Be nasty but successful. That's perfectly acceptable. No. She’s a self-destructive alcoholic who pushes everyone away. At one point, she asks her agent for advice. The words offered to her are so spot-on they devastate you. When she begins forging documents, you simultaneously begin to like her more… and less. At least now she's driven and productive and the scheme forces her to interact with Jack. Even though he’s a scoundrel (let’s be kind) at least they're no longer stagnant pools of misery. Unfortunately, the longer she keeps the con going, the worse you know it'll be. You see how this “career” is improving her life, at least initially. You've grown to like her… but you still want her to get caught. Maybe for an entirely different reason now.

There are many points where director Marielle Heller turns you into a fully transparent pane of glass and then attacks you with a sledgehammer. The pacing and the slowly bubbling tension is sublime. You can just feel how well writers Nicole Holofcener and Jeff Whitty captured the raw honesty of this outrageous story. Big praises towards McCarthy and Grant too. They play off each other so well they’re able to make you forget how you SHOULD feel about their characters and instead endears you to them. You laugh when they’re together - there’s a lot of dark wit in their dialogue - and then they’ll do a little something that’ll make you furious because deep down, you see how broken and sad they are. You desperately want them to quit while they're ahead but also draw a guilty pleasure from watching them as they make their way closer and closer to that cliff's edge. How many more steps before the ground beneath them gives away and they fall down screaming?

I didn’t have the pleasure of seeing Can You Ever Forgive Me? In theatres and had to wait for it to be available at home instead. I wish I could’ve told you about this movie earlier. On the other hand, it would’ve made making my “Best of 2018” list even more difficult. (August 10, 2019)