Movie Review: Can You Ever Forgive Me? (2018)

A biographical drama, Can You Ever Forgive Me? offers a slight story enlivened by a strong Melissa McCarthy performance.

It's 1991 in New York City, and Lee Israel (McCarthy) is a once-famous author specializing in biographies. Her books no longer sell, her latest project, a biography of Fanny Brice, generates no interest, and her agent has stopped returning her calls. It does not help that Lee is anti-social, grumpy, filthy and a hard drinker. Other than her elderly cat, her one friend and drinking buddy is Jack Hock (Richard E. Grant), an even less famous pretend author who is now practically homeless but maintains a joie de vivre.

Facing severe writer's block, and unable to pay the rent or look after her sick cat, Lee resorts to selling her memorabilia, then stumbles across an original Noël Coward letter stuffed in a library book. Discovering an active collectors' market for original letters by famous people, she invests in old typewriters and starts forging letters, selling them for cash to various bookstores and traders. Meanwhile, bookstore owner Anna (Dolly Wells) attempts to start a friendship with Lee, who finds it difficult to welcome anyone into her life.

Directed by Marielle Heller and based on Israel's book, Can You Ever Forgive Me? is a small story about a desperate woman tapping into an unregulated market feeding collectors' hunger for celebrity memorabilia. Israel's crimes are mundane, and so the film is not so much about her misdeeds as a character study of a distinctly unlikeable person.

And Melissa McCarthy's comprehensive shift to drama is an impressive success. The only reason to care about Israel is through the performance, and McCarthy finds the sad and lonely soul turned bitter against a literary world that has moved on and dumped her by the wayside. The Nicole Holofcener script could have benefitted from a bigger investment in the events leading to Lee's career downfall, but McCarthy does the most with the material on offer.

The subplot featuring the friendship between Israel and Hock carries echoes of Midnight Cowboy's companionship through squalor. The openly gay Hock is both a cohort and a polar opposite, maintaining a smile, a positive attitude and a glint in the eye despite rapidly dimming life prospects.

The film highlights delicious irony in Lee finding a creative outlet and taking pride in her forgeries. Recognizing she never had the talent or willingness to write in her own voice, she puts on the cloak of deception and mimics the flourish of celebrities. The few hundred dollars paid for each counterfeit letter serve as recognition of her talent, at least as far as she is concerned.

At around 10 minutes under two hours the film stretches its meager material, and the pacing is distinctly slow. But thanks to McCarthy, Can You Ever Forgive Me? earns clemency.

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Movie Review: Spy (2015)

An action comedy, Spy serves as a star vehicle for Melissa McCarthy and offers travelogue-style Bond-parody antics with an extra dose of fun vulgarity.

Susan Cooper (McCarthy) is a frumpy CIA agent reduced to a supporting role, staying safely behind a desk to support the dashing Bradley Fine (Jude Law) as he tackles daring missions across the globe. While searching for a missing suitcase nuke, Fine is killed in action by the glamorous Rayna Boyanov (Rose Byrne), who is attempting to sell the weapon to the highest bidder. CIA boss Elaine Crocker (Allison Janney) learns that Rayna has uncovered the identity of numerous CIA agents and agrees to allow the unknown Cooper to go into the field, much to the chagrin of highly-strung star agent Rick Ford (Jason Statham).

Assuming various identities Cooper tracks down terrorist middleman Sergio De Luca (Bobby Cannavale) in Paris, and then saves Rayna's life in Rome. Rayna is suspicious but accepts Cooper into her inner circle as she travels across Europe connecting with global mobsters. Cooper tries to locate the bomb without blowing her cover, a job not made easier by a rampaging agent Ford.

Directed by Paul Feig, Spy offers up exactly what it promises. The idea of an insecure desk-bound support agent being suddenly thrust into a field role to stop the sale of a weapon of mass destruction is a perfect fit with McCarthy's burst-out-of-a-shell persona, and the film carries enough female empowerment messaging to ride over the bumpier patches. Matching agent Cooper against a female antagonist in Rayna is a clever touch, allowing the battle between women to draw out contrasts in sophistication, attitude and grit.

Cooper is provided with the briefest of background sketches, but enough to make the point: 10 years prior she was a top trainee, but the suave and self-centred Bradley Fine convinced her to remain as his support rather than take the lead role, a jab at men standing in the way of women reaching their potential. Cooper also laments the formative messages she received from her mother encouraging meek submissiveness.

The action scenes are plentiful, laced with violence and profanity but keeping humour as the primary target and often hitting the mark. It's mostly frantic, breathless stuff, more concerned with rushing around Europe than common sense, a female Bond on laughing gas.

McCarthy surrounds herself with excellent talent, Jude Law and Jason Statham nailing their roles with Statham getting a fair share of the best lines as an agent with one too many hissing stories about his incredible feats from missions past. Rose Byrne provides the necessary condescending counterbalance, her bemused verbal sparring with McCarthy a constant source of comic tension.

Filled with irrelevant but funny sidebars including a CIA HQ infected with bats and mice, Spy is polished silliness.

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Movie Review: St. Vincent (2014)

A dramedy about an older man and a young boy helping each other to navigate life's tough patches, St. Vincent is sweet, satisfying and utterly predictable.

Vincent (Bill Murray) lives in a derelict house and drives a wreck of a car. He is unemployed, penniless, and a slob. His main activities include frequenting the local watering hole, frolicking with pregnant stripper Daka (Naomi Watts), and losing whatever money he scrounges at the racetrack. Single mom Maggie (Melissa McCarthy) moves into the house next door with her 12 year old son Oliver (Jaeden Lieberher). Maggie's job as a hospital technologist means long hours away from home, and she pleads with Vincent to babysit Oliver after school.

Desperate for money, he agrees against his better judgement. Vincent helps Oliver to deal with school bullies and introduces him to the strip club and the horse races. The two gradually establish a bond, Vincent rediscovering what responsibility for another person means, and Oliver growing up and unearthing the surprisingly real person behind the thick crust of Vincent's facade. But money and health problems will catch up with Vincent, threatening his burgeoning relationship with the new neighbours.

A character study full of pathos and humour, St. Vincent is all about Bill Murray's performance. He is the singular driving force behind the film, and gives it a full heart and earthy soul worth discovering. Murray provides Vincent with a sad veneer, a man seemingly resigned to live out the rest of his days in squalor while avoiding loan sharks and any meaningful contact with other human beings. But he always hints that he is hiding something more, a warmth still emanating deep within, just waiting to be tenderly exposed.

Oliver is the catalyst, and unfortunately for the movie, once the story reveals its direction it is as predictable as they come. Man helps boy become a man, boy helps man rediscover a passion for life, and both are reminded that every individual is worth celebrating. Director and screenwriter Theodore Melfi delivers it all with simplicity, some comedy and plenty of affection, and wisely limits the running time to just over 100 minutes, but St. Vincent offers little to genuinely stimulate the memory.

Melissa McCarthy is mercifully restrained, finally able to be funny without slipping into an overboard persona. Naomi Watts proves her range with the latest screen incarnation of a whore/stripper with a heart of gold, this time with the eccentric twist of also being very pregnant. She gradually starts stealing every scene she's in as the movie progresses, as Daka and Oliver reach the instinctive and unspoken understanding that they are both good for Vincent.

Murray has matured into a grizzled comedy veteran, his caustic style now suited to questioning what the world is coming to and pining for quieter, less complicated days. St. Vincent is a perfectly suitable role, but also an undemanding movie.

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The Movies Of Melissa McCarthy

All movies starring Melissa McCarthy and reviewed on the Ace Black Movie Blog are linked below:

Charlie's Angels (2000)

White Oleander (2002)

The Life Of David Gale (2003)

The Back-Up Plan (2010)

Life As We Know It (2010)

Bridesmaids (2011)

This Is 40 (2012)

Identity Thief (2013)

St. Vincent (2014)

Spy (2015)

Can You Ever Forgive Me? (2018)

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The Movie Star Index is here.

Movie Review: The Back-Up Plan (2010)

An average romantic comedy, The Back-Up Plan is lifted by an interesting enough premise and a committed Jennifer Lopez performance.

Zoe (Lopez) is a former corporate ladder climber who now owns a pet store in New York City. Single and giving up hope that she will ever find the perfect Mr. Right, Zoe decides to try and have a baby through artificial insemination. On her way out of the clinic she bumps into the dreamy Stan (Alex O'Loughlin), when they both try to hail the same cab. Stan is a goat farmer who sells cheese at a farmer's market, and is attending night school to try and secure an economics degree.

They start a relationship, only for Zoe to find out soon afterwards that the insemination worked: she is pregnant. Zoe joins a support group for single mothers, headed by Carol (Melissa McCarthy), but with the romance growing serious and Stan proving to be very much the man of her dreams, Zoe has to decide if and how to break the pregnancy news to him. Stan is still getting used to the idea of having a serious girlfriend, and the possibility of immediately becoming a father could understandably compromise his commitment.

The Back-Up Plan adheres to the standard rules of the rom-com genre, but finds a new twist in the form of a successful and unrelated pregnancy arriving ahead of the romance. It’s an intriguing complication to throw into a new relationship, and Zoe, who finds the man she’s looking for as soon as she stops looking, has the challenge of too many things going right at the same time. The second half of the film thrusts the fledgling couple into pregnancy mode, in a significant test of responsibility for both.

Directed by Alan Poul, The Back-Up Plan finds the right mix of love, humour, some drama and attractive New York locations. The film invests in Zoe’s character, creating a well-rounded and self-confident woman who is nevertheless struggling against trust issues. Zoe also has a circle of friends, a pregnancy support group, co-workers, and family to provide the requisite barbs and support. She also enjoys the company of a cute dog with mobility challenges. Lopez delivers a bright and cheerful performance, never threatening to surpass the material but certainly adequate enough for the purpose.

The character of Stan does unintentionally dull the film’s edge, in that he is almost too perfect. Sensitive, funny, caring, operating an eco-friendly business and striving for self-improvement, it’s a small miracle that he is single and available to fall into Zoe’s cab.

Entertaining and innocuous, The Back-Up Plan carries modest aspirations and delivers accordingly.

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Movie Review: Identity Thief (2013)

A light-weight comedy, Identity Thief finds a few laugh but spends too much time in unfunny oafish territory.

Sandy Patterson (Jason Bateman) is a lowly financial officer at a large bank in Denver, terrorized by his boss Harold Cornish (Jon Favreau) and barely earning enough to provide for his pregnant wife Trish (Amanda Peet) and two young daughters. Just when he decides to make a promising career move, things get a lot worse when the crude, overweight and overbearing Diana (Melissa McCarthy), who lives in Florida, remotely steals his identity, creates fraudulent copies of all his credit cards, and goes on a wild shopping spree.

With his life and reputation in tatters due to Diana's antics, and stymied by the slow-moving enforcement process, Sandy decides to travel himself to Florida, find Diana, and bring her back to Denver to force a confession. Sandy does find Diana but nothing else unfolds according to plan. Since they are now both called Sandy Patterson, they decide against flying, and instead opt for a slow cross-country drive. And to complicate matters considerably, Diana is also the target of assassins Marisol and Julian (Genesis Rodriguez and T.I.) working for an organized credit card fraud cartel, and no-nonsense bounty hunter Skiptracer (Robert Patrick).

Identity Thief has the considerable propelling power of Melissa McCarthy behind it, but little else. The film oscillates between a few peaks and many valleys according to McCarthy's comic antics. McCarthy stole many parts of Bridesmaids (2011) where her secondary character had plenty of support in delivering the laughs. Here asked to carry the full comic load, she buckles frequently.

On the few occasions when she hits her targets, Identity Thief is a reasonably funny road movie. But when McCarthy veers towards drudging repetition (how many times is punching someone in the neck supposed to be funny) or just low class vulgarity (really tasteless supposedly suggestive dance floor moves followed by a flat sexual ecstasy simulation scene with a stranger), the film stumbles badly.

In comparison, Jason Bateman is a relatively blank slate playing his typical reactive persona where others cause him pain or discomfort. Here Sandy Patterson may be initiating the transportation of Diana from Florida to Denver, but really it is Diana who is calling all the shots and getting the pair of them in and out of trouble. Bateman mostly just plays along, swept up in McCarthy's sizable slipstream.

Director Seth Gordon tries to squeeze some typical road movie journey-of-discovery type lessons, and at a relatively superficial level, Sandy's rage against Diana turns to some sympathy as he learns of her difficult childhood, while Diana develops a bit of a conscience as she comes face to face with one of her victims and his family. It's all rather platitudinous and predictable, as Identity Theft meanders on the highway of reasonable ideas, getting frequently lost.

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