Les faussaires de Manhattan

Melissa McCarthy has created a character, in her career that could keep her in lucrative employment without taking any risks.

Kudos to her for playing this risky a role, and pulling it off with aplomb. Richard E Grant is whimsy to her determination, but she successfully breathes life into a complex character.

Great film

I didn't know what to expect with this film. I was very pleasantly surprised. This movie is not a comedy and the performers did a great job of capturing people who are not always made for this world. Melissa McCarthy gives a impressive performance as Lee Israel and Richard Grant is wonderful as her ne'er do well friend and accomplice. I really like the atmosphere and the ability to capture the grit and seediness of New York in the early 90's. Marielle Heller and McCarthy did a fantastic job of taking someone with all the likability of my mother in law and making her sympathetic.

Melissa McCarthy is not known for her dramatic roles, but this film might change that. It's the gripping story of Lee Israel, a struggling Manhattan writer who in the early 1990s undertook the extraordinary step of falsifying letters from famous people to make ends meet.

McCarthy is an eye-opener here as the hard-drinking, acid-tongued Israel, a miserable middle-aged woman who sought friendship in precious few souls, one of them being a mysterious figure on the Upper West Side portrayed with fierce verve by Richard E. Grant, who winds up becoming something of an accomplice to her enterprise. She is desperate to pay her bills. His murky story becomes more known as the film progresses. The two of them are an odd couple, as they both have setbacks and misery to look back upon, but their pessimism and misanthrope are not equally shared.

This film will offer a glimpse of nostalgia for anyone who remembers New York in a now quaint era, when struggling writers still lived as adults in Manhattan, when life was endearingly bleak and bookstores were not yet massive chains. That sense of atmosphere I greatly admire. Recommended to anyone who enjoys a scathing story of literary scheming.

I must first confess that I was pleasantly surprised by the exceptional performance of the actress Melissa McCarthy who is (was?) almost-systematically accustomed to cinematographic pieces of junk such as Mère incontrôlable à la fac (2018), S.O.S. fantômes (2016) or Charlie et ses drôles de dames (2000). I sincerely hope that this film will mark a turning point in her career, with a before and an after.

Then, the subject is not really bankable: no superhero, no sexy actress, no Computer-Generated Imagery. In addition, the main characters are two insignificant loosers who will attract the wrath of the FBI because of their secret activity of a two-penny faker and will then be within an inch of jail. Of course, with such a script, the movie will probably not be a hit at the world box-office.

Nevertheless, the movie is delightfully excellent and describes with subtlety and sensitivity an ineluctable descent into the abyss. Lee Israel (Melissa McCarthy) was a writer with some success. One of her books was even mentioned in the New York Times best sellers. But, success is now part of the past and she regularly has huge difficulties in paying her rent. By chance, in an old book of a public library, she discovers a real typed letter from a well-known female writer. Begins then an improvised career of a scammer with false letters from real personalities that she skillfully engineers within her shabby apartment.

As a synthesis, Les faussaires de Manhattan (2018) is excellent! 8/9 of 10

A great story, which made me sigh and left me warm. Richard E Grant was superb, doing the Richard he does do well, his eyes overflowing with feeling at times. Melissa embodied and created her character equally. Superb.

Some cracking quotes such as: Lounge Singer: This next song goes out to all the agoraphobic junkies who couldn't be here tonight.

I had laughs, sighs, a gasp or two and a cracking story. Fully entertained, I loved it.

8/10