Lee Israel (Melissa McCarthy) has written a couple of moderately successful biographies, but after a recent failure she's finding it hard to write, and even harder to stay away from the bottle. With her funds dwindling she starts to sell off her possessions to keep the debtors away, including a personal letter from Katherine Hepburn. It makes her more money than she'd expected. She comes across a couple of letters written by Fannie Brice, whose life she's researching, but the first raises little cash because it's so bland. As an experiment she adds a more intimate PS to the second and it's value is doubled. Which gives her an idea for a new career.
Israel starts to forge letters from dead celebrities and hawking them round the dealers. The more imagination and character she puts into them, the more money she makes. But suspicions are raised and she withdraws into the background, using her friend Jack Hock (Richard E Grant) to act as her front man. Will justice catch up with them?
Based on the true story of events in nineties New York, McCarthy's Israel is a misanthropic loner, suspicious of anyone trying to get close to her. The flamboyantly camp Hock, like her a drinker and societal outcast, is a perfect companion, neither giving not demanding anything in their loose alliance of a friendship. Although the flaws in each soon become apparent.
The storyline is a slow burner, drawing in the viewer to a scam that becomes a passion and gives the writer a success her 'own' work never achieved. Both McCarthy and Grant give their characters a strong sense of ambivalence, both likeable and annoying at the same time, people who can never quite fit the mould of everyday society. Both give fantastic performances, aided by a clever script and sympathetic direction. If ultimately it lacks any great depth it more than makes up for this with charm and wit and the flawed humanity at it's core. Recommended.
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