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Parting ways from the more famous colleague in a entertainment duo is a dangerous affair. Larry David did it. The same for Musician Andrew Ridgeley. Now, this clever and profoundly melancholic intimate film from screenwriter Robert Kaplow and filmmaker the director Richard Linklater narrates the nearly intolerable story of musical theater lyricist the lyricist Lorenz Hart just after his breakup from Richard Rodgers. The character is acted with theatrical excellence, an dreadful hairpiece and artificial shortness by Ethan Hawke, who is often technologically minimized in stature – but is also at times shot standing in an off-camera hole to gaze upward sadly at more statuesque figures, facing the lyricist's stature problem as actor José Ferrer previously portrayed the small-statured Toulouse-Lautrec.

Layered Persona and Motifs

Hawke achieves substantial, jaded humor with Hart's humorous takes on the concealed homosexuality of the classic Casablanca and the cheesily upbeat musical he’s just been to see, with all the lariat-wielding cowhands; he acidly calls it Okla-homo. The sexual identity of Hart is multifaceted: this picture skillfully juxtaposes his queer identity with the heterosexual image fabricated for him in the 1948 musical the musical Words and Music (with Mickey Rooney playing Hart); it cleverly extrapolates a kind of dual attraction from Hart’s letters to his protege: college student at Yale and aspiring set designer Elizabeth Weiland, acted in this movie with uninhibited maidenly charm by actress Margaret Qualley.

As part of the renowned New York theater composing duo with composer Rodgers, Hart was accountable for unparalleled tunes like the song The Lady Is a Tramp, Manhattan, My Funny Valentine and of course Blue Moon. But annoyed at the lyricist's addiction, unreliability and gloomy fits, Richard Rodgers severed ties with him and joined forces with lyricist Oscar Hammerstein II to compose the musical Oklahoma! and then a multitude of stage and screen smashes.

Psychological Complexity

The picture imagines the severely despondent Lorenz Hart in the show Oklahoma!'s first-night New York audience in the year 1943, observing with envious despair as the show proceeds, loathing its mild sappiness, hating the punctuation mark at the conclusion of the name, but dishearteningly conscious of how devastatingly successful it is. He realizes a hit when he sees one – and feels himself descending into defeat.

Prior to the break, Lorenz Hart miserably ducks out and heads to the tavern at the establishment Sardi's where the balance of the picture occurs, and waits for the (unavoidably) successful Oklahoma! cast to appear for their after-party. He is aware it is his showbiz duty to congratulate Rodgers, to act as if all is well. With suave restraint, the performer Andrew Scott acts as Rodgers, obviously uncomfortable at what each understands is Hart’s humiliation; he provides a consolation to his self-esteem in the appearance of a brief assignment writing new numbers for their current production the show A Connecticut Yankee, which simply intensifies the pain.

• Actor Bobby Cannavale acts as the bartender who in traditional style hears compassionately to Hart's monologues of vinegary despair
• Patrick Kennedy portrays writer EB White, to whom Lorenz Hart unintentionally offers the idea for his youth literature Stuart Little
• Qualley plays Elizabeth Weiland, the impossibly gorgeous Yale student with whom the picture conceives Lorenz Hart to be complicatedly and self-harmingly in affection

Hart has already been jilted by Rodgers. Surely the world wouldn't be that brutal as to get him jilted by Weiland as well? But Qualley mercilessly depicts a young woman who wants Hart to be the laughing, platonic friend to whom she can disclose her adventures with young men – as well of course the Broadway power broker who can further her career.

Standout Roles

Hawke shows that Lorenz Hart to a degree enjoys observational satisfaction in listening to these young men but he is also truly, sadly infatuated with Weiland and the movie informs us of an aspect seldom addressed in pictures about the domain of theater music or the films: the dreadful intersection between occupational and affectionate loss. Nevertheless at some level, Hart is defiantly aware that what he has achieved will survive. It's a magnificent acting job from Ethan Hawke. This could be a stage musical – but who will write the songs?

Blue Moon was shown at the London movie festival; it is out on the 17th of October in the USA, November 14 in the Britain and on the 29th of January in the land down under.