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Parting ways from the better-known partner in a entertainment double act is a dangerous business. Larry David did it. Likewise Andrew Ridgeley. Presently, this witty and heartbreakingly sad small-scale drama from writer Robert Kaplow and filmmaker the director Richard Linklater recounts the nearly intolerable account of musical theater lyricist the lyricist Lorenz Hart right after his split from Richard Rodgers. He is played with theatrical excellence, an unspeakable combover and simulated diminutiveness by actor Ethan Hawke, who is regularly digitally shrunk in stature – but is also sometimes recorded placed in an unseen pit to gaze upward sadly at more statuesque figures, addressing Hart's height issue as José Ferrer once played the petite artist Toulouse-Lautrec.

Complex Character and Themes

Hawke achieves large, cynical chuckles with the character's witty comments on the hidden gayness of the film Casablanca and the overly optimistic stage show he recently attended, with all the lariat-wielding cowhands; he acidly calls it Okla-homo. The orientation of Hart is complex: this picture effectively triangulates his queer identity with the straight persona created for him in the 1948 musical the musical Words and Music (with actor Mickey Rooney acting as Lorenz Hart); it intelligently infers a kind of dual attraction from the lyricist's writings to his protégée: youthful Yale attendee and budding theater artist the character Elizabeth Weiland, played here with uninhibited maidenly charm by the performer Margaret Qualley.

As a component of the legendary musical theater composing duo with composer Rodgers, Lorenz Hart was responsible for unparalleled tunes like The Lady Is a Tramp, the tune Manhattan, the beloved My Funny Valentine and of course Blue Moon. But annoyed at the lyricist's addiction, unreliability and gloomy fits, Rodgers ended their partnership and joined forces with lyricist Oscar Hammerstein II to write Oklahoma! and then a raft of live and cinematic successes.

Sentimental Layers

The film imagines the deeply depressed Lorenz Hart in Oklahoma!’s first-night New York audience in the year 1943, gazing with jealous anguish as the show proceeds, hating its mild sappiness, hating the exclamation point at the end of the title, but dishearteningly conscious of how devastatingly successful it is. He understands a smash when he sees one – and feels himself descending into defeat.

Even before the interval, Hart miserably ducks out and goes to the bar at the venue Sardi's where the remainder of the movie unfolds, and expects the (inevitably) triumphant Oklahoma! company to appear for their following-event gathering. He realizes it is his performance responsibility to compliment Richard Rodgers, to feign things are fine. With smooth moderation, Andrew Scott plays Richard Rodgers, obviously uncomfortable at what both are aware is the lyricist's shame; he gives a pacifier to his self-esteem in the form of a temporary job creating additional tunes for their existing show the show A Connecticut Yankee, which just exacerbates the situation.

• Bobby Cannavale portrays the barkeeper who in conventional manner attends empathetically to Hart’s arias of bitter despondency
• The thespian Patrick Kennedy acts as author EB White, to whom Lorenz Hart inadvertently provides the idea for his kids' story the book Stuart Little
• The actress Qualley acts as Elizabeth Weiland, the impossibly gorgeous Yale student with whom the picture conceives Lorenz Hart to be complexly and self-destructively in affection

Hart has already been jilted by Rodgers. Certainly the cosmos wouldn't be that brutal as to have him dumped by Elizabeth Weiland as well? But Margaret Qualley ruthlessly portrays a girl who wishes Lorenz Hart to be the laughing, platonic friend to whom she can reveal her adventures with boys – as well of course the theater industry influencer who can advance her profession.

Performance Highlights

Hawke shows that Hart somewhat derives observational satisfaction in learning of these young men but he is also authentically, mournfully enamored with Weiland and the film reveals to us an aspect infrequently explored in films about the domain of theater music or the movies: the dreadful intersection between occupational and affectionate loss. Yet at a certain point, Hart is defiantly aware that what he has attained will endure. It's an outstanding portrayal from Ethan Hawke. This could be a stage musical – but who will write the numbers?

The movie Blue Moon screened at the London movie festival; it is released on the 17th of October in the United States, 14 November in the United Kingdom and on January 29 in the land down under.