I’ve always been fascinated by “collectables culture”. For many people, owning coveted rarities feels good, sometimes as a way to connect with others, sometimes as a way to display your good taste, status, or wealth. Sometimes a collectable is just an investment that’s devoid of logic or joy, and held onto primarily due to a (sometimes misguided) belief that it will increase in value (e.g. a JPEG of a cartoon ape).
When it comes to collectables, there is a high premium placed on owning something “real”, “authentic”, and “unique”. For some items, such as art, antique objects or furniture, there’s a whole industry to help verify provenance, ensuring a collector is indeed buying the “real thing”. But it’s not always possible to confirm authenticity. So how can you ever know for certain that what you’re buying is real?
In Can You Ever Forgive Me? (2018), the idea of authenticity is examined through the true story of author Lee Israel. Lee, played in the film by Melissa McCarthy, is a lonely, grumpy, misanthropic writer, who once had a book on the New York Times’ best-seller list, but now can barely afford to pay her rent. She lives with her cat in a cluttered apartment that she’s too depressed to keep clean. When we meet Lee, she is desperate for money, practically begging her agent to help her sell her latest endeavour, a biography of Fanny Brice.
After being rebuffed repeatedly, Lee decides to sell a personal, hand-written letter she received from Katherine Hepburn to help pay her cat’s vet bills. The experience sparks the beginning of an idea for a pretty great scheme: selling forged dead celebrity letters.
After running this scam for a few weeks, Lee finds that she’s actually really good at writing these letters, almost a little too good. “I’m a better Dorothy Parker than Dorothy Parker!” The whole thing becomes very lucrative and fun. All the while, Lee is spending lots of time drinking in the Village with an old acquaintance, the charming, chaotic, and charismatic Jack Hock (Richard E. Grant), who eventually becomes her partner in crime. Sadly, the fun doesn’t last forever, and as you might be able to guess, the scam doesn’t either (you’ll have to watch the movie to see how it all unfolds).
I really like this movie and the underlying true story behind it. The range in McCarthy’s performance as Lee Israel cannot be overstated - she’s incredible in this role. Richard E. Grant is also a joy to watch as John Hock, and together they have wonderful chemistry.
Watching this movie, it’s almost impossible not to be on Lee’s side (unless you’re a narc). It’s hard to feel any sympathy for the dealers and collectors who buy her letters, and not because they’re all dweebs (which they are), but because they’re all playing the same game she is! And look, I’m not saying forging celebrity letters is a victimless crime but like….isn’t it? Does it even matter if those letters are real? In so many cases, Lee’s fake letters were more amusing, charming and interesting to collectors than the real deal. It’s funny because the last thing people want from celebrities, whether they’re dead or alive, is actual authenticity.
At the end of the day, if you’re spending $2,000 on a letter Dorothy Parker (allegedly) wrote, and it turns out to be fake, how mad can you really be with anyone other than yourself? You’re the one who thought spending $2k on an old letter was a good idea in the first place. The whole thing is kind of absurd when you really think about it.
Can You Ever Forgive Me? is available to stream on Disney+ or you can rent it on iTunes/from the Library. Enjoy!