Melissa McCarthy is seriously good in “Can You Ever Forgive Me?”

By N.E.G.

“SHE had quite a mouth on her,” observes a rare book collector, reading a snarky personal letter ostensibly written by Dorothy Parker, an American poet and satirist. “I like to think she had a big personality,” retorts Lee Israel (Melissa McCarthy), the letter’s true author. By the time this scene takes place in “Can You Ever Forgive Me?”, a film based on real events, it is obvious why Lee wants to impersonate and defend Parker. She has also been accused of being too outspoken: that has overshadowed her success as a celebrity biographer and given her a reputation for being unemployable.

Ms McCarthy, in her first major dramatic role, renders Lee as both unlikable and, somehow, deeply sympathetic. Despite having recently had a book on the New York Times bestseller list, she cannot pay her rent. To rectify this problem, she decides to ambush her editor (Jane Curtin), who won’t return her calls, at a party. The next day, she storms into her office to berate her in private. The editor explains once more that no one wants to work with her on account of her attitude problem.

Lee’s fortunes change when she discovers an unpublished letter by Fanny Brice, a vaudeville star, tucked into the cover of an old library book. She sells it and, stunned by the demand for such artefacts, decides to falsify a letter by Noel Coward. Buoyed by its acceptance by experts as authentic, she forges on, mimicking some of the most indelible voices in American entertainment history such as Katharine Hepburn, Lillian Hellman and Judy Holliday. Each letter is a rewarding writing challenge and a seemingly victimless criminal enterprise. It offers her a joie de vivre sorely missing from her life; she even makes a boisterous and stylish friend in the process, a witty former colleague and ex-con (Richard E. Grant).

It is a curious plot that might feel contrived were it not based on a true story, but Ms McCarthy’s probing performance does much to keep things believable. When comedians try their hand at drama, they often start with a character that is introverted or socially repressed, so that the viewer’s expectation of their buffoonery creates a natural tension—think of Jim Carrey in “The Truman Show” or Will Ferrell in “Stranger Than Fiction”—and it is an effective shortcut to real character work. Ms McCarthy, however, builds Lee with the same courage with which she approaches her comedy (indeed, the exchange over the Parker letter reads like a debate over the actor’s previous work). Lee is a similar figure in some ways to the cocky yet vulnerable types she is known for, but Ms McCarthy’s wit is understated here. She allows Lee to be desperate and pathetic.

“Can You Ever Forgive Me?” is a thoughtful film even if, in the final third, it succumbs to a few Hollywood banalities. Lee’s downfall, and her eventual redemption, feel a little too preordained. The forged letters draw suspicion—though she managed to sell 400 of them first—and the FBI investigates, threatening her new friendship and her freedom. There is a rousing courtroom speech. A sick cat, Lee’s pet, is thrown in just to make sure the viewer sympathises with the antihero’s plight. These are techniques a lesser film would need to keep the audience’s interest, but they are surplus to requirements here.

Those mistakes and embellishments can be excused for the authenticity the film generally achieves. Director Marielle Heller (“The Diary of a Teenage Girl”) lets the camera linger on the sad realities of Lee’s life, from her failed personal relationships to the dingy basement bars that she regularly frequents. At the same time, “Can You Ever Forgive Me?” serves as a reminder of Lee’s talent and provides Ms McCarthy with an opportunity to show off hers.