🔗 Share this article

Breaking up from the more prominent collaborator in a showbiz double act is a risky business. Comedian Larry David did it. So did Musician Andrew Ridgeley. Currently, this witty and deeply sorrowful chamber piece from writer Robert Kaplow and director the director Richard Linklater recounts the all but unbearable account of Broadway lyricist Lorenz Hart right after his split from composer Richard Rodgers. His role is portrayed with flamboyant genius, an dreadful hairpiece and simulated diminutiveness by actor Ethan Hawke, who is often digitally reduced in stature – but is also sometimes filmed standing in an unseen pit to gaze upward sadly at heightened personas, confronting the lyricist's stature problem as José Ferrer previously portrayed the petite artist Toulouse-Lautrec.

Multifaceted Role and Themes

Hawke earns large, cynical chuckles with Hart's humorous takes on the hidden gayness of the classic Casablanca and the overly optimistic stage show he just watched, with all the lariat-wielding cowhands; he sarcastically dubs it Okla-homo. The sexual identity of Hart is multifaceted: this film clearly contrasts his gayness with the straight persona fabricated for him in the 1948 musical the musical Words and Music (with Mickey Rooney acting as Hart); it intelligently infers a kind of dual attraction from Hart’s letters to his protégée: youthful Yale attendee and would-be stage designer the character Elizabeth Weiland, acted in this movie with carefree youthful femininity by Margaret Qualley.

As part of the legendary Broadway composing duo with the composer Rodgers, Lorenz Hart was in charge of unparalleled tunes like The Lady Is a Tramp, the tune Manhattan, the standard My Funny Valentine and of course the titular Blue Moon. But annoyed at Hart's drinking problem, unreliability and depressive outbursts, Richard Rodgers severed ties with him and partnered with the writer Oscar Hammerstein II to create the musical Oklahoma! and then a multitude of live and cinematic successes.

Emotional Depth

The film envisions the deeply depressed Hart in Oklahoma!’s premiere Manhattan spectators in 1943, gazing with covetous misery as the performance continues, loathing its insipid emotionality, hating the exclamation point at the finish of the heading, but soul-crushingly cognizant of how extremely potent it is. He realizes a smash when he views it – and perceives himself sinking into unsuccessfulness.

Before the intermission, Hart miserably ducks out and makes his way to the bar at the establishment Sardi's where the rest of the film unfolds, and expects the (inevitably) triumphant Oklahoma! company to appear for their following-event gathering. He is aware it is his entertainment obligation to compliment Rodgers, to act as if all is well. With smooth moderation, Andrew Scott portrays Rodgers, evidently ashamed at what they both know is Hart's embarrassment; he provides a consolation to his ego in the appearance of a short-term gig creating additional tunes for their current production the show A Connecticut Yankee, which just exacerbates the situation.

• Bobby Cannavale plays the bartender who in traditional style hears compassionately to Hart's monologues of bitter despondency
• Actor Patrick Kennedy plays author EB White, to whom Hart accidentally gives the concept for his children’s book Stuart Little
• Margaret Qualley portrays Elizabeth Weiland, the unattainably beautiful Yale attendee with whom the picture conceives Hart to be complexly and self-destructively in affection

Lorenz Hart has earlier been rejected by Rodgers. Surely the world wouldn't be that brutal as to have him dumped by Elizabeth Weiland as well? But Qualley ruthlessly portrays a girl who wishes 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 promote her occupation.

Acting Excellence

Hawke shows that Lorenz Hart partly takes observational satisfaction in learning of these boys but he is also genuinely, tragically besotted with Weiland and the picture tells us about an aspect seldom addressed in movies about the domain of theater music or the films: the dreadful intersection between occupational and affectionate loss. However at some level, Hart is rebelliously conscious that what he has achieved will persist. It's a magnificent acting job from Hawke. This might become a theater production – but who will write the numbers?

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