Director Marielle Heller's latest brings out the best in both Melissa McCarthy and co-star Richard E. Grant in a story almost too bizarre to believe. It feels like a slow burn, but it's a stunner.
Melissa McCarthy's bid for dramatic cred is just nasty enough to be enjoyable, thanks hugely to Richard E. Grant's gleeful turn as a dimwitted but high-spirited end-of-the-line party boy who befriends our heroine just as she touches bottom.
Easily one of the best film's of the year, Marielle Heller's Can You Ever Forgive Me? sports career-best performances from Melissa McCarthy and Richard E. Grant in a tender, biting, funny story about middle-aged failure and bitterness.
Can You Ever Forgive Me? works, largely, because director Marielle Heller and screenwriter Nicole Holofcener approach this totally unlikeable character from a place of unconditional love and understanding.
