"[24] Film Journal International said McCarthy's performance was "stunning" and her previous film roles "could not anticipate how fearlessly and credibly she inhabits Lee Israel. Lee meets with her literary agent, Marjorie, who sharply rejects her plan for the Brice book and explains that Lee, with her difficult personality, is responsible for her own career slump. The film strongly implies that Hock is homeless, or something close to it.

[6] On May 14, 2015, Chris O'Dowd joined the cast. Lauder herself had offered to pay Israel not to write the biography, and when the author refused, Lauder published her own memoir, which undercut the sales of Israel’s book. After the incident, Israel began accompanying Hock to their sales and waiting to meet him nearby when the deal was completed.

She befriends Hock at a bar shortly before beginning her forging escapades. Can You Ever Forgive Me? In her memoir, Israel describes falling in love with “a brilliant, beautiful bartender named Elaine, a lapsed Catholic who now observed only Bloomsday and St Patrick’s — the first with solemnity, the latter with wretched excess.”, Israel published Estée Lauder: Beyond the Magic in 1985.

According to her account, Israel was only confronted on the street by a pair of FBI agents, which prompted her to go home and dispose of her research materials and typewriters. This episode played out in real life remarkably similarly to the way it does in the film. Hock, played by Richard E. Grant in the new movie, died in October 1994 at age 47. In real life, the two had been longtime friends until Israel found out that Hock, who had been shopping one of her books in order to make a movie adaptation, had forged her name on an option extension.

Bad luck and shoddy handling of her finances had drained her savings and left her with few prospects. [23], Peter Debruge wrote in Variety that "it takes an actress as delightful as [Melissa McCarthy] to make such a woman not just forgivable but downright lovable"; however, in how the film was promoted he concluded that "one gets the impression that Fox Searchlight is trying to hide (or at least downplay) the homosexual side of this story: Lee was a lesbian, while the openly gay Jack [Hock] can hardly pass a fire hydrant without asking for its phone number.

She removes one of them from the building and shows it to Anna. No one bought it. Israel knew the field well enough to know that no dealer would pass up potentially valuable letters for a family visit. She agreed, paying in increments over time. Dorothy Parker, in Israel’s hands, wrote to a friend, “I have a hangover out of Gounod’s ‘Faust.’ ” Novelist and playwright Edna Ferber mentioned that the noise of the construction workers outside her apartment will “make a Tory out of me yet.” Sharp-tongued actress Louise Brooks wrote, from Israel’s pen, about how she thought Joe Kennedy was a “Tyranny Adict [sic]” and a “terrible old fart,” and that Humphrey Bogart was a “woman-beater and bully.”. Israel estimated she wrote 100,000 words during her forgery career, and came to consider them her greatest accomplishment. Sorry, your blog cannot share posts by email.

She claimed she felt no guilt for the theft; the letters “were from the realm of the dead. She was persona non grata in the memorabilia field. Updated: February 12, 2019 3:33 PM ET | Originally published: October 19, 2018 10:06 AM EDT, Taiwan Achieves Record 200 Days With No Local Virus Cases, The Disastrous Swedish Approach to Fighting COVID-19, Khloe Kardashian Reveals Her Coronavirus Diagnosis, You can unsubscribe at any time. This story has been shared 280,427 times. She also began prank-calling former friends and others in the industry pretending to be various celebrities, earning herself a legal letter from Nora Ephron’s lawyer and a visit from two detectives. [11] Westfeldt does not appear in the finished film. Anna makes Lee an offer that is lower than what she was expecting due to the bland content of the letter. Lee returns home and uses a typewriter to add a postscript to the letter. In the film, the net begins to close on Israel when a dealer grows suspicious of her Noël Coward letters. In the film, a slimy rare books dealer tells Israel that he was approached by the FBI and demands $5,000 to buy his silence. The memoir was re-released last month by Simon & Schuster. Lee returns to Anna’s store where Anna, amused by what “Fanny Brice” wrote “several decades ago,” offers Lee $350. This story has been shared 129,685 times. [16] “I was going to take a crook’s tour of major university libraries,” she wrote, “replicate some valuable letters in their various collections, and then replace the McCoy with forged copies.”.

She took odd jobs, from personal assistant to legal proofreader, but got fired from all of them. Doris and I were alive.”. had its world premiere at the Telluride Film Festival on September 1, 2018. I abandoned NYC amid COVID — and it was the worst decision of my life. This story has been shared 108,461 times. She refused and wrote the book anyway. The judge sentences Lee Israel to five years' probation and six months' house arrest. "[22] On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 87 out of 100, based on 53 critics, indicating "universal acclaim". Post was not sent - check your email addresses! Jack Hock had a history of suffering beatings from “hustlers for whose services he had refused to pay.” He was in prison for robbing a cabdriver at knifepoint and wrote to Israel that he would soon be released on probation because he had contracted AIDS. ': How Melissa McCarthy Stepped In for Julianne Moore, "Richard E. Grant & More Join Melissa McCarthy In 'Can You Ever Forgive Me, "Toronto: Timothee Chalamet Starrer 'Beautiful Boy,' Dan Fogelman's 'Life Itself' Among Festival Lineup", "Movie of the Week October 19, 2018: Can You Ever Forgive Me", "Jonah Hill's 'Mid90s,' 'Can You Ever Forgive Me?,' and 'Wildlife' Start Strong". And once again, she needed money.

Israel had once granted Hock an option on a book she had written to allow him to try to sell it to Hollywood, but she ended the friendship when she learned he had kept trying to sell it beyond the expiration of his option, forging her name to keep on. During its 11th weekend in release the film crossed $7.5 million stateside.

The website's critical consensus reads, "Deftly directed and laced with dark wit, Can You Ever Forgive Me? Hock, played by Richard E. Grant in the new movie, died in October 1994 at age 47. For this, Hock would get 50 percent plus expenses. 108,461, © 2020 NYP Holdings, Inc. All Rights Reserved (Hock had been released from prison a short time earlier for the armed robbery of a taxicab driver). Near the end of the movie, Israel and Elaine meet again, and it becomes apparent that Elaine has moved on even if Israel, who had pushed her away in the first place, has not. In her memoir, Israel also claims that she was unable to pay the vet bills for her cat Doris. Israel, portrayed in the movie as a depressed misanthrope with a drinking problem, refers again and again to what seems to be her one real human connection in the past — her relationship with her (ex) girlfriend Elaine (played by Anna Deavere Smith).

"[25] Eric Kohn of IndieWire said the film was a "charming melancholic comedy" where "Heller channels the dark urban milieu of vintage Woody Allen", and in which McCarthy's performance "elevates the material at every opportunity.