Can You Ever Forgive Me? (Marielle Heller)

[Ezee E]

IMDB (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt4595882/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1)

http://irishfilmcritic.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/Forgive.jpg

[Peng]

Charmingly minor character study of a misanthrope, forgoing the gritty-nitty particulars of her crime in favor of accumulating lived-in details about her life and relationships (especially a very fun turn from Richard E. Grant) instead. Her caustic wit, especially in her banter with Grant, is delightful, and both the film and McCarthy never soften her edges or beg for audience's sympahty, just allowing us to simply be in her presence and observe. That neutral accumulation pays off in the third act, where simple scenes carry a lot of weight from the rich sense of character and history behind them; a very late scene between McCarthy and Grant suddenly hits me out of nowhere. Weird to speak of a film with an "unlikable" central character like this, but this is lovely. 7/10

[Grouchy]

This is the kind of film that's so unpretentious it will always be considered a "minor" work, yet by virtue of the central performances and their part in creating relatable, believable characters it elevates itself and it will certainly stick in my mind longer than more ambitious stuff like Roma or Widows. Richard E. Grant is probably one of my favorite underrated actors of all time and McCarthy does a great embittered writer. The direction by Heller, while not calling much attention to itself, does a good job of emulating Woody Allen but with more LGTB people thrown in.

I don't consider the people in this film so "unlikable", by the way. I had a much harder time with the troupe from A Star is Born, to name just an example. I only liked Andrew Dice Clay in that.

[Peng]

Yeah that’s why I put “unlikable” in quote, because she’s not really, even if the misanthropic personality might indicate of being so.

[dreamdead]

I'll throw down for this one. It feels, as mentioned, like a minor-key film, yet it has a strong range within that register, and that quality allows for it to wield a powerful final scene in the bar during the coda. Since it feels so small, characters are allowed to grow, and there's at least three fully dimensional characters here.

I was a fan of Heller's earlier film, and this one captures the wonder and the mundanity of the city quite well. McCarthy and Grant are excellent, as is the script more generally.