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Separating from the better-known colleague in a performance duo is a risky business. Larry David experienced it. So did Musician Andrew Ridgeley. Presently, this witty and heartbreakingly sad intimate film from screenwriter Robert Kaplow and helmer the director Richard Linklater tells the all but unbearable story of musical theater lyricist Lorenz Hart shortly following his breakup from Richard Rodgers. The character is acted with campy brilliance, an notable toupee and simulated diminutiveness by Ethan Hawke, who is frequently digitally reduced in height – but is also occasionally shot standing in an hidden depression to look up poignantly at more statuesque figures, addressing the lyricist's stature problem as José Ferrer previously portrayed the small-statured Toulouse-Lautrec.

Layered Persona and Elements

Hawke achieves substantial, jaded humor with Hart’s riffs on the subtle queer themes of the film Casablanca and the overly optimistic theater production he recently attended, with all the lasso-twirling cowboys; he bitingly labels it Okla-queer. The sexual identity of Hart is multifaceted: this film clearly contrasts his gayness with the heterosexual image invented for him in the 1948 theater piece the musical Words and Music (with actor Mickey Rooney acting as Hart); it intelligently infers a kind of dual attraction from Hart's correspondence to his protege: young Yale student and aspiring set designer the character Elizabeth Weiland, acted in this movie with carefree youthful femininity by the performer Margaret Qualley.

As a component of the renowned musical theater lyricist-composer pair with composer Rodgers, Lorenz Hart was in charge of matchless numbers like the song The Lady Is a Tramp, Manhattan, the standard My Funny Valentine and of course Blue Moon. But exasperated with Hart’s alcoholism, undependability and depressive outbursts, Rodgers ended their partnership and teamed up with Oscar Hammerstein II to compose the musical Oklahoma! and then a series of stage and screen smashes.

Emotional Depth

The picture envisions the severely despondent Lorenz Hart in the musical Oklahoma!'s opening night Manhattan spectators in 1943, gazing with jealous anguish as the performance continues, despising its mild sappiness, detesting the punctuation mark at the finish of the heading, but heartsinkingly aware of how lethally effective it is. He understands a success when he sees one – and feels himself descending into unsuccessfulness.

Prior to the interval, Lorenz Hart unhappily departs and makes his way to the tavern at the venue Sardi's where the balance of the picture occurs, and waits for the (inevitably) triumphant Oklahoma! cast to show up for their after-party. He is aware it is his entertainment obligation to congratulate Richard Rodgers, to pretend things are fine. With suave restraint, actor Andrew Scott portrays Rodgers, clearly embarrassed at what they both know is Hart's embarrassment; he gives a pacifier to his ego in the guise of a brief assignment writing new numbers for their ongoing performance A Connecticut Yankee, which simply intensifies the pain.

• Bobby Cannavale acts as the barman who in conventional manner listens sympathetically to Hart's monologues of acerbic misery
• Patrick Kennedy plays writer EB White, to whom Lorenz Hart unintentionally offers the notion for his kids' story Stuart Little
• Qualley acts as Weiland, the unattainably beautiful Ivy League pupil with whom the picture conceives Hart to be complicatedly and self-harmingly in affection

Hart has previously been abandoned by Rodgers. Undoubtedly the cosmos wouldn't be that brutal as to get him jilted by Weiland as well? But Margaret Qualley mercilessly depicts a young woman who wishes Lorenz Hart to be the giggly, sexually unthreatening intimate to whom she can disclose her experiences with guys – as well of course the theater industry influencer who can promote her occupation.

Standout Roles

Hawke reveals that Lorenz Hart to a degree enjoys observational satisfaction in learning of these guys but he is also truly, sadly infatuated with Weiland and the film informs us of an aspect rarely touched on in movies about the world of musical theatre or the films: the awful convergence between career and love defeat. Yet at some level, Lorenz Hart is rebelliously conscious that what he has achieved will persist. It’s a terrific performance from Hawke. This could be a live show – but who shall compose the numbers?

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