What I found most interesting about the cinematic adaptation of Can You Ever Forgive Me is how detailed Lee Israel’s life was. The movie gave her a very unique personality and seemed to fully understand her character. I think this is due to the quality of writing Lee Israel wrote in her book, which shows her skills as an author.
Lee Israel indicated that her best writing was her forgeries. I think this was thought due to the measure of success from all of her works. Through the movie, we learn that people did not like Israel’s personality, and therefore perhaps her voice. That may be why she spent her writing career writing biographies about other people as people did not like her voice. Therefore, her forgeries may have been her biggest success because she had the opportunity to write in other peoples’ voices that were not her own.
The title of the movie was written in a letter Israel impersonated, writing as Dorothy Parker. In this letter, she apologizes for any comments she may have said while she was drunk. I think this is ironic because we know from the movie that Lee Israel would frequently drink and say mean comments; however she would never apologize for these comments and stand by them. I think writing this letter that she knows that she is not a nice person, and that other, nicer people would apologize while she would not.
I think an issue with Lee Israel’s writing was that people did not like her voice or personality. She was a talented writer but as shown by her agent, people did not like her character. This may have been why she focused on writing biographies of other people. One way of changing this could have been targeting audiences that enjoy her voice. This could be done writing books that these people are interested in. Another way is by changing her voice until she became famous. When Lee Israel was complaining about Tom Clancy’s personality to her agent, the agent mentioned he can act that way due to him being famous and successful. Therefore, Israel can act as herself, but only when she is famous. Before that her personality is a turnoff for people.
A lesson I learned from this movie is that a likable personality is extremely important. Lee Israel was a terrific writer, but her personality turned her away from many opportunities. A question I had after the movie is how did Lee not get a prison sentence? I thought it was interesting how her lawyer was certain she would go to prison, but she did not.