This week, we watched a film titled: “Can you ever forgive me?” which focuses on a biographer named Lee Israel. Her career was failing and she started to struggle with money so she turned to forgery. She created fake letters from famous writers who have passed away. I found the plot of this film to be very interesting and ironic. Lee dedicated a ton of her time and energy into doing something illegal when she could have just used that for her own work in the first place. She would have been more successful in the long run if she had done so. I also found it a bit sad. It is clear that Lee struggled to find her own voice when writing, and she felt better about her work when it was not her own. She didn’t feel comfortable in her own voice. She instead hid behind forgeries. I feel like the meaning of the title is deeper when you think about where it came from. Lee is hiding behind someone else’s voice so the title “Can you ever forgive me?” speaks volumes. It expresses guilt. I also interpreted the title as symbolizing her forgeries. Her true thoughts and feelings are hidden behind the title. I think she could have put the same amount of research that she used for her forgeries into her own work. Lee did a ton of research to make sure that the letters were accurate and she would make them more personal/believable. Lee could have used that energy for her own original works. I see this as wasted potential. I learned that it is always better to just trust the process. No matter how bad things get, you shouldn’t try and take the easy way out because the truth always reveals itself and could result in bad consequences and leave you worse off than before. Like how Lee ended up eventually. The film did often leave me questioning if what she did was justifiable or not. At the end of the day, she was struggling with her career and needed to make money to survive. Though what she did was wrong and illegal, I do not villainize her for it.