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Parting ways from the better-known partner in a entertainment double act is a risky endeavor. Comedian Larry David went through it. The same for Musician Andrew Ridgeley. Currently, this witty and deeply sorrowful chamber piece from writer Robert Kaplow and helmer the director Richard Linklater narrates the almost agonizing account of songwriter for Broadway the lyricist Lorenz Hart right after his separation from composer Richard Rodgers. His role is portrayed with theatrical excellence, an dreadful hairpiece and artificial shortness by actor Ethan Hawke, who is frequently digitally reduced in stature – but is also occasionally filmed standing in an unseen pit to look up poignantly at more statuesque figures, confronting Hart's height issue as actor José Ferrer previously portrayed the petite Toulouse-Lautrec.

Multifaceted Role and Elements

Hawke gets big, world-weary laughs with Hart's humorous takes on the subtle queer themes of the movie Casablanca and the excessively cheerful theater production he just watched, with all the rope-spinning ranch hands; he bitingly labels it Okla-gay. The sexual identity of Lorenz Hart is multifaceted: this film clearly contrasts 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 Lorenz Hart); it shrewdly deduces a kind of bisexuality from Hart's correspondence to his young apprentice: college student at Yale and budding theater artist Elizabeth Weiland, acted in this movie with uninhibited maidenly charm by Margaret Qualley.

As a component of the famous New York theater songwriting team with the composer Rodgers, Lorenz Hart was responsible for unparalleled tunes like the song The Lady Is a Tramp, the tune Manhattan, the beloved My Funny Valentine and of course the song Blue Moon. But exasperated with Hart’s alcoholism, undependability and melancholic episodes, Rodgers broke with him and partnered with lyricist Oscar Hammerstein II to create the musical Oklahoma! and then a multitude of theater and film hits.

Emotional Depth

The picture imagines the profoundly saddened Hart in the musical Oklahoma!'s opening night New York audience in the year 1943, gazing with jealous anguish as the show proceeds, hating its mild sappiness, abhorring the exclamation mark at the finish of the heading, but heartsinkingly aware of how lethally effective it is. He realizes a smash when he watches it – and senses himself falling into unsuccessfulness.

Prior to the intermission, Lorenz Hart sadly slips away and makes his way to the tavern at the venue Sardi's where the rest of the film takes place, and expects the (certainly) victorious Oklahoma! company to arrive for their following-event gathering. He knows it is his entertainment obligation to congratulate Rodgers, to act as if things are fine. With suave restraint, the performer Andrew Scott plays Rodgers, evidently ashamed at what they both know is the lyricist's shame; he gives a pacifier to his ego in the form of a short-term gig writing new numbers for their ongoing performance A Connecticut Yankee, which simply intensifies the pain.

• The performer Bobby Cannavale acts as the bartender who in conventional manner listens sympathetically to Hart's monologues of bitter despondency
• The thespian Patrick Kennedy acts as writer EB White, to whom Lorenz Hart inadvertently provides the notion for his kids' story Stuart Little
• The actress Qualley plays Weiland, the unattainably beautiful Ivy League pupil with whom the picture imagines Lorenz Hart to be complicatedly and self-harmingly in affection

Lorenz Hart has already been jilted by Richard Rodgers. Undoubtedly the world wouldn't be that brutal as to cause him to be spurned by Weiland as well? But Qualley mercilessly depicts a youthful female who wishes Lorenz Hart to be the laughing, platonic friend to whom she can disclose her exploits with guys – as well of course the theater industry influencer who can advance her profession.

Performance Highlights

Hawke demonstrates that Lorenz Hart to a degree enjoys observational satisfaction in learning of these boys but he is also authentically, mournfully enamored with Weiland and the picture reveals to us a factor seldom addressed in pictures about the world of musical theatre or the movies: the dreadful intersection between career and love defeat. Nevertheless at a certain point, Hart is defiantly aware that what he has achieved will persist. It's an outstanding portrayal from Ethan Hawke. This could be a stage musical – but who will write the songs?

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