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Separating from the more famous collaborator in a entertainment duo is a dangerous endeavor. Comedian Larry David did it. So did Musician Andrew Ridgeley. Now, this witty and deeply sorrowful small-scale drama from scriptwriter Robert Kaplow and helmer the director Richard Linklater tells the nearly intolerable account of musical theater lyricist the lyricist Lorenz Hart just after his breakup from Richard Rodgers. The character is acted with campy brilliance, an unspeakable combover and artificial shortness by Ethan Hawke, who is frequently technologically minimized in stature – but is also occasionally shot positioned in an unseen pit to look up poignantly at taller characters, addressing Hart’s vertical challenge as José Ferrer in the past acted the diminutive artist Toulouse-Lautrec.

Complex Character and Motifs

Hawke achieves large, cynical chuckles with Hart's humorous takes on the subtle queer themes of the movie Casablanca and the overly optimistic theater production he just watched, with all the rope-spinning ranch hands; he acidly calls it Okla-gay. The sexual identity of Lorenz Hart is complex: this movie clearly contrasts his gayness with the straight persona invented for him in the 1948 musical the musical Words and Music (with actor Mickey Rooney acting as Hart); it shrewdly deduces a kind of bisexual tendency from the lyricist's writings to his protege: college student at Yale and would-be stage designer Weiland, portrayed in this film with carefree youthful femininity by actress Margaret Qualley.

As a component of the legendary Broadway lyricist-composer pair with musician Richard Rodgers, Lorenz Hart was responsible for unparalleled tunes like The Lady Is a Tramp, the number Manhattan, the standard My Funny Valentine and of course the titular Blue Moon. But exasperated with the lyricist's addiction, unreliability and depressive outbursts, Richard Rodgers ended their partnership and joined forces with Oscar Hammerstein II to compose the musical Oklahoma! and then a series of theater and film hits.

Emotional Depth

The film conceives the deeply depressed Lorenz Hart in the show Oklahoma!'s opening night Manhattan spectators in the year 1943, gazing with covetous misery as the production unfolds, despising its insipid emotionality, abhorring the exclamation mark at the finish of the heading, but heartsinkingly aware of how lethally effective it is. He understands a smash when he watches it – and feels himself descending into defeat.

Prior to the intermission, Lorenz Hart miserably ducks out and goes to the bar at Sardi’s where the balance of the picture takes place, and anticipates the (inevitably) triumphant Oklahoma! troupe to arrive for their post-show celebration. He is aware it is his showbiz duty to congratulate Richard Rodgers, to act as if all is well. With suave restraint, actor Andrew Scott plays Richard Rodgers, clearly embarrassed at what both are aware is Hart’s humiliation; he offers a sop to his self-esteem in the appearance of a short-term gig creating additional tunes for their ongoing performance A Connecticut Yankee, which simply intensifies the pain.

• Bobby Cannavale plays the barman who in conventional manner attends empathetically to the character's soliloquies of bitter despondency
• Patrick Kennedy plays writer EB White, to whom Lorenz Hart inadvertently provides the notion for his youth literature Stuart Little
• Margaret Qualley portrays Elizabeth Weiland, the inaccessibly lovely Ivy League pupil with whom the movie envisions Hart to be intricately and masochistically in affection

Lorenz Hart has previously been abandoned by Rodgers. Certainly the universe wouldn't be that brutal as to get him jilted by Weiland as well? But Qualley pitilessly acts a girl who desires Lorenz Hart to be the giggly, sexually unthreatening intimate to whom she can reveal her adventures with young men – as well of course the theater industry influencer who can advance her profession.

Performance Highlights

Hawke shows that Hart to a degree enjoys spectator's delight in listening to these young men but he is also genuinely, tragically besotted with Weiland and the movie informs us of something infrequently explored in pictures about the world of musical theatre or the movies: the terrible overlap between career and love defeat. Nevertheless at a certain point, Hart is rebelliously conscious that what he has attained will endure. It’s a terrific performance from Hawke. This might become a stage musical – but who shall compose the numbers?

Blue Moon premiered at the London cinema festival; it is available on October 17 in the USA, November 14 in the UK and on 29 January in the land down under.