Can You Ever Forgive Me?

**Can You Ever Forgive Me?** is a 2018 film starring Melissa McCarthy and Richard E. Grant, directed by Marielle Heller, written by Nicole Holofcener and Jeff Whitty and produced by Anne Carey, Amy Nauiokas and David Yarnell.

The film was a financial failure as it generated a loss of $13 million.

## Plot

In 1991, following the critical and commercial failure of her biography of Estée Lauder, author Lee Israel struggles with financial troubles, writer's block, and alcoholism. Although she hopes to write a biography of comedienne Fanny Brice, her agent, Marjorie, sharply rejects the idea and explains that Lee, with her difficult personality, is responsible for her own career slump.

With Marjorie unable to secure her an advance for a new book, regardless of subject matter, Lee resorts to selling her possessions to cover living expenses. She sells a personal letter she received long ago from Katharine Hepburn to a used bookstore merchant and autograph dealer named Anna. Meanwhile, Lee begins spending time with old acquaintance Jack Hock.

Visiting a Manhattan library's special collections department to research Fanny Brice, Lee discovers two letters typewritten by Brice. She removes one of them from the building and shows it to Anna. Anna makes Lee an offer that is lower than what she was expecting due to the letter's bland content. Lee returns home and uses a typewriter to add a postscript to the second letter. Lee returns to Anna’s store, where Anna, amused by what “Fanny Brice” wrote “several decades ago,” offers Lee $350.

Lee then starts forging and selling letters "by" deceased celebrities, incorporating intimate details to command high prices. Anna, a fan of Lee’s biographies, tries to initiate a romantic relationship, but may have another motive as on their dinner date she produces a short story she has written hoping for a critique. At the end of the dinner the socially phobic Lee appears to rebuff her.

In some of Lee's letters, she has Noël Coward make unguarded references to his sexuality. A used book dealer named Paul buys one of them from Lee and then sends it to a friend of his who knew Coward, who died less than 20 years ago. Coward’s friend becomes suspicious and raises an alarm that leads to Lee’s customers blacklisting her. Unable to sell the forgeries, she has Jack sell the letters on her behalf. She also starts stealing authentic letters from libraries and archives for Jack to sell, replacing them with forged duplicates. While Lee is out of town committing one such theft, her cat dies under Jack's care. She ends their friendship but continues their partnership out of necessity.

The FBI arrests Jack while he is attempting a sale. He cooperates with them, resulting in Lee being served with a court summons. She retains a lawyer, who advises her to show contrition by getting a job, doing community service, and joining Alcoholics Anonymous. In court, Lee admits she enjoyed creating the forgeries and does not regret her actions, but realizes that her crimes were not worth it because they did not show her true self as a writer. The judge sentences Lee to five years' probation and six months' house arrest.

Sometime later, Lee arranges an encounter in a small restaurant with Jack and reconciles with him. Jack, dying of AIDS, grants her permission to write a memoir about their escapades. Later, while Lee is passing a bookstore, she sees a Dorothy Parker letter she forged that is now on sale for $1,900. Disgusted, she writes the store owner a sarcastic note in Parker's voice. Upon receiving the note and realizing that the letter in the storefront window is a fake, the owner removes it from the window but changes his mind and decides to keep it on display.