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Parting ways from the more famous partner in a performance partnership is a risky endeavor. Larry David experienced it. So did Andrew Ridgeley. Now, this clever and deeply sorrowful chamber piece from scriptwriter Robert Kaplow and filmmaker Richard Linklater tells the nearly intolerable tale of musical theater lyricist Lorenz Hart just after his split from Richard Rodgers. His role is portrayed with theatrical excellence, an unspeakable combover and fake smallness by Ethan Hawke, who is frequently digitally reduced in size – but is also sometimes filmed placed in an hidden depression to gaze upward sadly at more statuesque figures, facing the lyricist's stature problem as actor José Ferrer in the past acted the diminutive Toulouse-Lautrec.

Complex Character and Motifs

Hawke gets substantial, jaded humor with Hart's humorous takes on the subtle queer themes of the classic Casablanca and the excessively cheerful theater production he’s just been to see, with all the lariat-wielding cowhands; he sarcastically dubs it Okla-queer. The sexual identity of Hart is complicated: this movie effectively triangulates his homosexuality with the non-queer character fabricated for him in the 1948 theater piece the production Words and Music (with actor Mickey Rooney playing Hart); it intelligently infers a kind of dual attraction from the lyricist's writings to his young apprentice: college student at Yale and aspiring set designer the character Elizabeth Weiland, acted in this movie with heedless girlishness by actress Margaret Qualley.

As part of the legendary musical theater composing duo with composer Rodgers, Lorenz Hart was in charge of incomparable songs like The Lady Is a Tramp, the tune Manhattan, the beloved My Funny Valentine and of course Blue Moon. But frustrated by Hart’s alcoholism, unreliability and gloomy fits, Richard Rodgers ended their partnership and partnered with the writer Oscar Hammerstein II to write Oklahoma! and then a multitude of theater and film hits.

Emotional Depth

The movie conceives the deeply depressed Hart in the show Oklahoma!'s first-night Manhattan spectators in 1943, observing with envious despair as the production unfolds, despising its insipid emotionality, detesting the punctuation mark at the conclusion of the name, but heartsinkingly aware of how extremely potent it is. He knows a hit when he views it – and feels himself descending into unsuccessfulness.

Prior to the break, Lorenz Hart sadly slips away and heads to the tavern at Sardi’s where the remainder of the movie unfolds, and waits for the (unavoidably) successful Oklahoma! cast to show up for their post-show celebration. He knows it is his performance responsibility to praise Rodgers, to act as if all is well. With polished control, Andrew Scott portrays Richard Rodgers, obviously uncomfortable at what they both know is the lyricist's shame; he provides a consolation to his pride in the appearance of a short-term gig creating additional tunes for their current production A Connecticut Yankee, which simply intensifies the pain.

• Actor Bobby Cannavale portrays the barman who in traditional style hears compassionately to Hart’s arias of bitter despondency
• Actor Patrick Kennedy acts as writer EB White, to whom Hart accidentally gives the notion for his youth literature the book Stuart Little
• Margaret Qualley plays Weiland, the impossibly gorgeous Yale student with whom the picture envisions Lorenz Hart to be complexly and self-destructively in affection

Hart has already been jilted by Rodgers. Certainly the cosmos couldn't be that harsh as to have him dumped by Weiland as well? But Qualley ruthlessly portrays a youthful female who wishes Hart to be the giggly, sexually unthreatening intimate to whom she can confide her exploits with guys – as well of course the theater industry influencer who can further her career.

Performance Highlights

Hawke reveals that Lorenz Hart to a degree enjoys observational satisfaction in hearing about these boys but he is also genuinely, tragically besotted with Weiland and the picture informs us of a factor infrequently explored in films about the realm of stage musicals or the cinema: the dreadful intersection between professional and romantic failure. However at some level, Hart is boldly cognizant that what he has accomplished will survive. It's an outstanding portrayal from Hawke. This may turn into a stage musical – but who will write the numbers?

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