McCarthy gives her best performance to date in quirky ‘Can You Ever Forgive Me?’

Posted on November 16, 2018

By MARK VIOLA

Melissa McCarthy is one of the most successful female actresses working today, with a long string of hits to her name. Unfortunately, like a lot of actors, especially in the comedy genre, she has become somewhat typecast, playing more or less the same role over and over again.

As such, I was absolutely floored when I first saw the trailer for “Can You Ever Forgive Me?” in which McCarthy looks nearly unrecognizable while delivering her most dramatic — and best — performance to date. Telling the true story of biographer-turned-forger, Lee Israel (McCarthy), the film will have you laughing one moment and crying the next.

This is a mostly quiet movie, and even the laughs are relatively subdued, but that’s pretty much what I was expecting going into a film about a woman who forged letters by literary figures. This is not your typical McCarthy movie. In fact, it’s about as an anti-McCarthy film as you can get.

The film is rated R for language, including some sexual references, and brief drug use.

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