In 90s New York, Lee Israel (Melissa McCarthy) is a talented biographer that life has certainly not smiled at: unpleasant in manner and appearance, misanthropic and lonely (her only loves are alcohol and her beloved cat), ignored by critics and her publishing house, the woman works for a few dollars as a proofreader to live miserably and keep a filthy apartment.
When fired from her one job, Lee decides to take advantage of her brilliant writing and encyclopedic knowledge about past celebrities and old showbiz anecdotes to earn a living and pay for the old cat's care. Thus he began to forge letters and telegrams from actors, writers, comedians and directors and then resell them at very high prices to collectors and connoisseurs. With the help of only friend Jack Hock (Richard E. Grant), a homosexual rich in intelligence, joie de vivre and master of the art of getting by, Lee will start an illicit business that will allow her to regain momentum in life and redemption as an author.
The true story of this large than life character is brought to the big screen by Marielle Heller in Can You Ever Forgive Me?, biopic based on Lee Israel's autobiography / confession of the same name (1939 - 2014), Comedian Melissa McCarthy plays the role of the forger in her first creative breakthrough that earned her her second nomination for theOscar. The film is also nominated for Best Supporting Actor for Richard E. Grant and Best Non-Original Screenplay.
Cinema's ability to give space to stories and characters that would otherwise risk ending up in oblivion is always amazed. On the other hand, few can say that they have read the bestselling biography in America from which the Original Copy is taken, and it is a real shame: the story is full of important considerations on the nature of talent, on the nostalgia of past times, on loneliness and depression, on the hypocrisy existing in the world of the arts - and of writing in particular - and on much more seasoned with the author's vitriolic humor.
The director Marielle Heller she works with file, putting at the heart of the film the interpretation of the two protagonists, two diametrically opposed characters who complement each other: she is closed, disenchanted, practical, homosexual for her own business; he extroverted, hyperkinetic, unconscious, a flamboyant gay who doesn't ask anyone's permission. The America of the Clinton administration, the AIDS crisis and the cultural and economic drift is outlined in a push and pull of sharp comments, between one drink and another and colorful insults, between friendship with comic tints and human drama. following the fall of the Berlin Wall. Copia Orignale reasons, through the portrait of a unique character, on the forms of talent and on the individual value hidden beyond appearances, in a film that, had there been a bit of jazz and some breaking of the fourth wall, could have been misunderstood as a work of the best Woody Allen.
