Qhis evening, on first tv at 21.20 on Rai 3, it goes on the air Original copyfilm with Melissa McCarthy (in her first dramatic role) and Richard E. Grant about the true story of Lee Israel. Forgery writer who was arrested in the 1990s for selling forged letters from countless American celebrities.
Original copythe plot of the movie
New York, 1990s. Lee Israel (McCarthy) is a writer specializing in biographies of famous personalities who achieved success with lives on Katherine Hepburn, Tallulah Bankhead and journalist Dorothy Kilgallen. Struck from the failure of a book on Estée Lauder, Lee ends up in disgrace, between alcoholism and midlife crisis and accounts in the red; when she comes across a letter from actress Fanny Brice, she decides to enrich it with content to better sell it to a publisher.
Got a good salary decides to start counterfeiting the letters of some missing celebrities, stealing them from the archives and embellishing them with invented details. He is helped by Jack Hock (Richard E. Grant), an ex-con whom he met in a bar. At some point though, some publishers are starting to get suspicious and they understand that false publications are circulating, until even the FBI is interested in the woman, trying to figure out if a scam is in progress.
Melissa McCarthy and the “real” Lee Israel.
A controversial character between humor and spy story
Taken from the memoirs (Can You Ever Forgive Me?) by Lee Israel herselfdisappeared in 2014, Marielle Heller’s film tells a story of loneliness that is not easily forgotten. In fact, starting from the illuminating prologue, the director immediately immerses the viewer in the dreary and gray world of a woman adrift but capable, at the same time, of finding redemption after a series of humiliations.
Impeccably scripted, Original copy condenses a number of elements, including a New York of chiaroscuro that is so reminiscent of Woody Allen’s cinemabut also of genres. Given that, in the second part, the film delves into the territories of the spy story tinged with almost black humor implications.
Obviously, great credit for the success of the film must be given to the pair of bizarre protagonists Melissa McCarthy and Richard E. Grant. Not by chance, both Oscar nominees in 2018 for their interpretation. In fact, the two actors manage very well to materialize on their body, on the wrinkles (and on the tears) the life of two losers looking for redemption.
It is also thanks to them that the director manages to intercept a very credible emotional world even in the details. Like the typewriter, the objects, the coats and sweaters, the cynical jokes of Lee and Jack and the drinks they sipped together. But most of all gives the figure of Lee Israel that dignity that had been taken away after her arrest in 1993. Thanks to McCarthy in fact, the figure of this woman in disarray is as irritating as it is very rich in humanitya complex character, with a high empathetic appeal, who still causes discussion today.
Melissa McCarthy and husband Ben Falcone. (Getty Images)
The Melissa McCarthy Phenomenon
Comedian of race and multifaceted talent, the actress was born in Plainfield in 1970 and from a very young age she performed in stand-up clubs between New York and Los Angeles. Her first roles in cinema and TV brought her popularity – like the role of Sookie in A mum for a friend – but Melissa clearly is “victim” of typecasting that wants her to be nice and good-natured especially because of her generous shapes. In 2011 something finally changes thanks to director Judd Apatow and the film The friends of the bride where the actress can give vent to all her caustic and grotesque talent. And, not surprisingly, it arrives therefirst Oscar nomination thanks to the role of Megan.
From that moment on, the doors of success opened up for Melissa, but if she still struggles to find worthy roles in the cinema, the consecration arrives on television at Saturday Night Live. Dove creates memorable characters thanks to his physicality able to adapt to any comic mask. In parallel, in 2005 she married her colleague Ben Falcone with whom she will not only have two daughters but who will also become her Pygmalion director and who he will direct her in the currently airing Netflix series God’s Favorite Idiot. And, meanwhile, the actress is also enjoying the recent triumph of The little Mermaid, where she masterfully played the role of the very bad Ursula.
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