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Parting ways from the better-known collaborator in a entertainment duo is a dangerous endeavor. Comedian Larry David did it. The same for Musician Andrew Ridgeley. Now, this clever and heartbreakingly sad intimate film from writer the writer Robert Kaplow and filmmaker Richard Linklater narrates the all but unbearable story of musical theater lyricist the lyricist Lorenz Hart right after his split from Richard Rodgers. He is played with theatrical excellence, an dreadful hairpiece and artificial shortness by Ethan Hawke, who is frequently digitally reduced in height – but is also occasionally recorded standing in an hidden depression to look up poignantly at taller characters, addressing Hart’s vertical challenge as José Ferrer previously portrayed the small-statured artist Toulouse-Lautrec.

Layered Persona and Themes

Hawke earns large, cynical chuckles with Hart's humorous takes on the hidden gayness of the classic Casablanca and the excessively cheerful theater production he recently attended, with all the lariat-wielding cowhands; he bitingly labels it Okla-homo. The sexuality of Lorenz Hart is complex: this movie effectively triangulates his gayness with the straight persona fabricated for him in the 1948 musical Words and Music (with actor Mickey Rooney portraying Hart); it intelligently infers a kind of dual attraction from Hart's correspondence to his young apprentice: college student at Yale and budding theater artist Weiland, acted in this movie with heedless girlishness by Margaret Qualley.

As a component of the legendary New York theater composing duo with the composer Rodgers, Hart was in charge of matchless numbers like the song The Lady Is a Tramp, the tune Manhattan, the beloved My Funny Valentine and of course Blue Moon. But annoyed at Hart’s alcoholism, inconsistency and gloomy fits, Rodgers broke with him and joined forces with the writer Oscar Hammerstein II to write Oklahoma! and then a multitude of stage and screen smashes.

Psychological Complexity

The picture imagines the profoundly saddened Hart in the show Oklahoma!'s first-night NYC crowd in 1943, looking on with envious despair as the performance continues, despising its bland sentimentality, abhorring the punctuation mark at the conclusion of the name, but heartsinkingly aware of how lethally effective it is. He knows a success when he watches it – and senses himself falling into defeat.

Before the interval, Hart miserably ducks out and makes his way to the pub at the establishment Sardi's where the rest of the film unfolds, and waits for the (certainly) victorious Oklahoma! company to arrive for their after-party. He realizes it is his performance responsibility to praise Richard Rodgers, to pretend things are fine. With polished control, the performer Andrew Scott plays Richard Rodgers, clearly embarrassed at what each understands is Hart’s humiliation; he provides a consolation to his pride in the appearance of a short-term gig writing new numbers for their current production the musical A Connecticut Yankee, which only makes it worse.

• Bobby Cannavale portrays the barman who in traditional style listens sympathetically to Hart’s arias of bitter despondency
• Patrick Kennedy acts as EB White, to whom Hart unintentionally offers the concept for his children’s book the novel Stuart Little
• The actress Qualley acts as Elizabeth Weiland, the unattainably beautiful Yale attendee with whom the movie imagines Lorenz Hart to be intricately and masochistically in love

Lorenz Hart has already been jilted by Rodgers. Undoubtedly the universe wouldn't be that brutal as to cause him to be spurned by Elizabeth Weiland as well? But Qualley pitilessly acts a youthful female who wants Hart to be the giggly, sexually unthreatening intimate to whom she can disclose her experiences with guys – as well of course the showbiz connection who can further her career.

Standout Roles

Hawke shows that Hart somewhat derives observational satisfaction in learning of these young men but he is also genuinely, tragically besotted with Elizabeth Weiland and the film reveals to us a factor infrequently explored in films about the domain of theater music or the cinema: the terrible overlap between professional and romantic failure. However at one stage, Hart is boldly cognizant that what he has achieved will endure. It's a magnificent acting job from Hawke. This may turn into a theater production – but who shall compose the songs?

The movie Blue Moon screened at the London movie festival; it is released on October 17 in the US, November 14 in the UK and on January 29 in the Australian continent.