Rows of mansions,cubic office with rigorous work rules,old fashion jazz music.....you can make a decent guess about the location without seeing the actual neiborghood.And yes it's new york, again.From countless films depicting people living in this metropolis,This one is the newly update with similiar background but a memorable twist.
New york is the epitome of big cities.In one corner,billionaire is drinking wine in Michelin restraunt,in another,charlatan is stepping on the bench hawking his wares.Everybody is busy surviving in this merciless capitalized junggle.Lee Isreal is this lady so ordinary that get no one's attention but made her own special story.When our protagonist Lee Isreal met her publisher,all she got were bitter words,"you can't success if you dont play the game","you can be an asshole when you're famous".A person have to work his ass off to climb the social ladder in this city or you be knocked out.
Lee Isreal,whose books stood on the discount shelf,can hardly make a living after losing her job.But as the implication of her name and her unpopular interst on jewish writer,she would probably contrive some crafty ideas.And here it is.By selling her old letters,she explored a whole market of "originals".Her unfond skill suddenly became an advantage.Piece by piece,she started to make famous writer's letter that escaped the scrutiny of most people.Not everyone could imitate this.That's explain her cherishment of those fake originals and her anger when her friend Jack try to sell her letters arbitarily,"these are literature treasures!!"
While revealling Lee's history of counterfeit, the story also shade light on her life and freindship.She is an lonely lady with a sick old cat,an alcholic with a gay drinking buddy, and a book writer with limited recognition.She share her secret fraud with jack and sharing became a bond of genuine freindship but when the bookshop owener want to extend thier freindship,the fraud become an obstacle.Just like she want to write book without concerning sales,she want to be a good neighbor but can't make her own room clean,all these contrary narratives somehow decriminalize her as a fraud but a midlle-aged poor lady who deserve some sympathy.When the final scripts rolls in, we know that her letters that personating other famous writers was so impressive that even some biography included them before knowing it's fake.Even an honest people may show a bit of admiration, at least i do.
Another great story, wonderful music.Norah jones song describe new york city as a beautiful disease,this melancholy tone sing well with the story.When the film gives a few shots of new york city,it create not familiarity but a sphere of possibilities, you just don't know if the people walking by is a delicate criminal, a talented writer or a cat lover, maybe all of them.
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