Splatter: on FILM

REVIEW in HAIKU:

 

Surprise! McMarthy

Can act without slapstick or

hijinx. She’s got chops.

 

Review:

Melissa McCarthy surprised me. She brings layers of grief, sensitivity, and longing to the character of Lee Israel. Lee is a writer with too much responsibility and very little hope until she finds she has a talent for forgery – writing “lost letters” in the voices of famous authors. Her comrade is the equally down and out, but is somehow able, perhaps by example to bring her out by showing just how low you can go in desperation.

It’s another sad tale with disagreeable characters written with gruff realism by Nicole Holofcener who somehow always manages to write dispicable people who remind us of ourselves, making this another odd cocktail of a tale: one of sorrow AND human resilience.