Can you ever forgive me? * * * *

          I really enjoyed this dramatisation of Lee Israel.  She was a writer who found she had an extraordinary knack for imitating the style of others, especially in letters.  The hand written  correspondence of celebrities can be highly collectable and valuable.
            Israel had some success as a biographer but couldn't get it together for her second book. She had a drinking problem and writers block.   Desperate for money she turned her writing skills to forgery.

Lee and  Jack drink to their success.

           She was particularly good at imitating the writing style of Noel Coward and Dorothy Parker.  (As an aside I'm quite grateful to this film for prompting me to look further into Dorothy Parker and the Algonquin round Table group).
           Lee Israel lived in a putrid apartment that stank of her cat.  Because of her rude and abrasive manner she was a  friendless person but became close to a lonely gay man - Jack - played well by Richard Grant.  He would do the selling for her.  Their friendship intensified as did their greed.
           With such a plethora of unknown letters hitting the market it did not take long for the authorities to get involved.  Catching this pair of amusing scoundrels was no biggie for the FBI.  It's insightful that after the exposure, some of the dealers and antiquarians were still happy to sell her forgeries to an unsuspecting public as genuine articles.
           It's an excellent performance from Melissa McCarthy who we mostly know for her comic work.