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Separating from the better-known partner in a entertainment partnership is a risky endeavor. Comedian Larry David did it. Likewise Musician Andrew Ridgeley. Presently, this clever and deeply sorrowful chamber piece from scriptwriter the writer Robert Kaplow and helmer Richard Linklater narrates the almost agonizing tale of musical theater lyricist the lyricist Lorenz Hart just after his split from composer Richard Rodgers. He is played with campy brilliance, an unspeakable combover and simulated diminutiveness by Ethan Hawke, who is frequently digitally reduced in size – but is also occasionally shot standing in an off-camera hole to gaze upward sadly at taller characters, addressing the lyricist's stature problem as actor José Ferrer in the past acted the small-statured artist Toulouse-Lautrec.

Layered Persona and Elements

Hawke achieves big, world-weary laughs with the character's witty comments on the hidden gayness of the classic Casablanca and the excessively cheerful theater production he just watched, with all the rope-spinning ranch hands; he bitingly labels it Okla-homo. The sexuality of Hart is complex: this film effectively triangulates his queer identity with the non-queer character created for him in the 1948 stage show the production Words and Music (with actor Mickey Rooney playing Lorenz Hart); it shrewdly deduces a kind of bisexuality from the lyricist's writings to his protégée: college student at Yale and budding theater artist the character Elizabeth Weiland, played here with carefree youthful femininity by actress Margaret Qualley.

Being a member of the famous musical theater songwriting team with the composer Rodgers, Hart was accountable for unparalleled tunes like The Lady Is a Tramp, the tune Manhattan, My Funny Valentine and of course Blue Moon. But annoyed at Hart’s alcoholism, inconsistency and depressive outbursts, Richard Rodgers ended their partnership and joined forces with Oscar Hammerstein II to write Oklahoma! and then a series of live and cinematic successes.

Psychological Complexity

The film envisions the profoundly saddened Hart in Oklahoma!’s first-night Manhattan spectators in 1943, gazing with envious despair as the production unfolds, despising its insipid emotionality, abhorring the punctuation mark at the conclusion of the name, but dishearteningly conscious of how extremely potent it is. He realizes a success when he sees one – and perceives himself sinking into unsuccessfulness.

Even before the break, Lorenz Hart miserably ducks out and heads to the tavern at the establishment Sardi's where the balance of the picture takes place, and anticipates the (certainly) victorious Oklahoma! company to appear for their after-party. He realizes it is his showbiz duty to compliment Rodgers, to act as if things are fine. With smooth moderation, actor Andrew Scott acts as Richard Rodgers, obviously uncomfortable at what both are aware is Hart's embarrassment; he offers a sop to his self-esteem in the form of a brief assignment composing fresh songs for their current production the musical A Connecticut Yankee, which simply intensifies the pain.

• Actor Bobby Cannavale plays the barkeeper who in conventional manner attends empathetically to Hart's monologues of vinegary despair
• The thespian Patrick Kennedy portrays EB White, to whom Hart inadvertently provides the notion for his children’s book the novel Stuart Little
• Qualley portrays Weiland, the unattainably beautiful Ivy League pupil with whom the film envisions Lorenz Hart to be intricately and masochistically in adoration

Lorenz Hart has previously been abandoned by Richard Rodgers. Certainly the world can’t be so cruel as to get him jilted by Weiland as well? But Qualley pitilessly acts a young woman who desires Hart to be the laughing, platonic friend to whom she can confide her adventures with guys – as well of course the showbiz connection who can promote her occupation.

Performance Highlights

Hawke shows that Hart somewhat derives voyeuristic pleasure in listening to these boys but he is also authentically, mournfully enamored with Elizabeth Weiland and the film informs us of something infrequently explored in pictures about the world of musical theatre or the films: the dreadful intersection between professional and romantic failure. Nevertheless at a certain point, Hart is defiantly aware that what he has achieved will endure. It's a magnificent acting job from Hawke. This may turn into a live show – but who would create the numbers?

The film Blue Moon premiered at the London film festival; it is available on 17 October in the USA, November 14 in the Britain and on January 29 in the land down under.