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Parting ways from the more prominent partner in a entertainment duo is a risky endeavor. Comedian Larry David experienced it. Likewise Andrew Ridgeley. Now, this humorous and deeply sorrowful chamber piece from writer the writer Robert Kaplow and helmer Richard Linklater recounts the nearly intolerable tale of Broadway lyricist Lorenz Hart right after his split from Richard Rodgers. He is played with flamboyant genius, an notable toupee and fake smallness by Ethan Hawke, who is frequently digitally reduced in stature – but is also sometimes recorded placed in an hidden depression to look up poignantly at taller characters, addressing Hart’s vertical challenge as José Ferrer once played the small-statured artist Toulouse-Lautrec.

Multifaceted Role and Motifs

Hawke achieves big, world-weary laughs with Hart’s riffs on the subtle queer themes of the classic Casablanca and the overly optimistic theater production he just watched, with all the lasso-twirling cowboys; he bitingly labels it Okla-homo. The sexuality of Hart is complex: this film skillfully juxtaposes his homosexuality with the non-queer character fabricated for him in the 1948 musical the musical Words and Music (with actor Mickey Rooney acting as Hart); it cleverly extrapolates a kind of dual attraction from the lyricist's writings to his protege: college student at Yale and aspiring set designer the character Elizabeth Weiland, played here with carefree youthful femininity by Margaret Qualley.

As a component of the famous musical theater songwriting team with musician Richard Rodgers, Hart was responsible for incomparable songs like The Lady Is a Tramp, the number Manhattan, My Funny Valentine and of course the titular Blue Moon. But annoyed at Hart's drinking problem, unreliability and melancholic episodes, Rodgers broke with him and joined forces with lyricist Oscar Hammerstein II to write Oklahoma! and then a raft of stage and screen smashes.

Emotional Depth

The movie envisions the severely despondent Hart in Oklahoma!’s premiere NYC crowd in 1943, looking on with jealous anguish as the production unfolds, despising its bland sentimentality, abhorring the exclamation mark at the conclusion of the name, but soul-crushingly cognizant of how lethally effective it is. He knows a hit when he sees one – and senses himself falling into defeat.

Prior to the intermission, Hart unhappily departs and goes to the pub at the venue Sardi's where the remainder of the movie occurs, and anticipates the (unavoidably) successful Oklahoma! cast to appear for their post-show celebration. He realizes it is his entertainment obligation to congratulate Richard Rodgers, to feign everything is all right. With suave restraint, Andrew Scott plays Rodgers, clearly embarrassed at what both are aware is Hart’s humiliation; he gives a pacifier to his pride in the guise of a short-term gig composing fresh songs for their current production the show A Connecticut Yankee, which just exacerbates the situation.

• Actor Bobby Cannavale portrays the barkeeper who in conventional manner listens sympathetically to the character's soliloquies of bitter despondency
• The thespian Patrick Kennedy portrays writer EB White, to whom Hart accidentally gives the idea for his children’s book Stuart Little
• Margaret Qualley plays Elizabeth Weiland, the impossibly gorgeous Ivy League pupil with whom the movie conceives Hart to be complicatedly and self-harmingly in affection

Hart has previously been abandoned by Rodgers. Undoubtedly the cosmos couldn't be that harsh as to get him jilted by Weiland as well? But Margaret Qualley ruthlessly portrays a young woman who wishes Hart to be the giggly, sexually unthreatening intimate to whom she can disclose her adventures with young men – as well of course the showbiz connection who can advance her profession.

Standout Roles

Hawke shows that Lorenz Hart somewhat derives observational satisfaction in listening to these young men but he is also truly, sadly infatuated with Weiland and the film tells us about an aspect rarely touched on in movies about the world of musical theatre or the cinema: the terrible overlap between professional and romantic failure. However at a certain point, Hart is rebelliously conscious that what he has achieved will endure. It’s a terrific performance from Ethan Hawke. This might become a stage musical – but who would create the tunes?

The movie Blue Moon premiered at the London film festival; it is released on October 17 in the US, 14 November in the Britain and on the 29th of January in Australia.