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Parting ways from the more prominent collaborator in a entertainment double act is a risky affair. Larry David went through it. So did Andrew Ridgeley. Presently, this humorous and deeply sorrowful small-scale drama from scriptwriter Robert Kaplow and director the director Richard Linklater narrates the nearly intolerable account of musical theater lyricist Lorenz Hart just after his breakup from composer Richard Rodgers. The character is acted with theatrical excellence, an notable toupee and artificial shortness by actor Ethan Hawke, who is regularly technologically minimized in height – but is also at times recorded placed in an unseen pit to stare up wistfully at more statuesque figures, confronting Hart's height issue as José Ferrer once played the petite Toulouse-Lautrec.

Layered Persona and Motifs

Hawke earns big, world-weary laughs with Hart's humorous takes on the subtle queer themes of the film Casablanca and the overly optimistic musical he just watched, with all the lasso-twirling cowboys; he bitingly labels it Okla-homo. The sexuality of Hart is multifaceted: this film effectively triangulates his queer identity with the non-queer character created for him in the 1948 stage show the production Words and Music (with actor Mickey Rooney acting as Lorenz Hart); it cleverly extrapolates a kind of dual attraction from Hart’s letters to his protégée: college student at Yale and aspiring set designer the character Elizabeth Weiland, acted in this movie with carefree youthful femininity by Margaret Qualley.

Being a member of the legendary musical theater songwriting team with musician Richard Rodgers, Hart was in charge of unparalleled tunes like the classic The Lady Is a Tramp, the tune Manhattan, My Funny Valentine and of course the song Blue Moon. But frustrated by Hart's drinking problem, inconsistency and melancholic episodes, Richard Rodgers ended their partnership and teamed up with Oscar Hammerstein II to create the musical Oklahoma! and then a series of theater and film hits.

Sentimental Layers

The picture imagines the severely despondent Lorenz Hart in Oklahoma!’s premiere New York audience in 1943, observing with jealous anguish as the performance continues, hating its mild sappiness, detesting the exclamation mark at the conclusion of the name, but heartsinkingly aware of how devastatingly successful it is. He realizes a success when he sees one – and feels himself descending into failure.

Before the intermission, Hart unhappily departs and goes to the tavern at the establishment Sardi's where the remainder of the movie takes place, and waits for the (certainly) victorious Oklahoma! troupe to show up for their post-show celebration. He realizes it is his entertainment obligation to congratulate Rodgers, to act as if everything is all right. With suave restraint, actor Andrew Scott plays Richard Rodgers, evidently ashamed at what each understands is Hart's embarrassment; he offers a sop to his pride in the appearance of a brief assignment writing new numbers for their ongoing performance A Connecticut Yankee, which just exacerbates the situation.

• Actor Bobby Cannavale plays the barkeeper who in conventional manner hears compassionately to Hart’s arias of vinegary despair
• Actor Patrick Kennedy portrays author EB White, to whom Lorenz Hart accidentally gives the concept for his kids' story the novel Stuart Little
• Margaret Qualley acts as Elizabeth Weiland, the impossibly gorgeous Yale student with whom the movie envisions Hart to be complicatedly and self-harmingly in adoration

Lorenz Hart has already been jilted by Richard Rodgers. Undoubtedly the cosmos couldn't be that harsh as to have him dumped by Weiland as well? But Margaret Qualley mercilessly depicts a young woman who desires Hart to be the giggly, sexually unthreatening intimate to whom she can confide her adventures with boys – as well of course the theater industry influencer who can promote her occupation.

Performance Highlights

Hawke reveals that Lorenz Hart partly takes voyeuristic pleasure in listening to these guys but he is also authentically, mournfully enamored with Weiland and the movie informs us of a factor seldom addressed in films about the domain of theater music or the cinema: the awful convergence between career and love defeat. Nevertheless at some level, Hart is defiantly aware that what he has accomplished will endure. It’s a terrific performance from Ethan Hawke. This may turn into a live show – but who shall compose the numbers?

Blue Moon screened at the London movie festival; it is available on the 17th of October in the United States, 14 November in the United Kingdom and on the 29th of January in Australia.