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Separating from the better-known partner in a entertainment partnership is a dangerous endeavor. Larry David experienced it. So did Andrew Ridgeley. Currently, this witty and heartbreakingly sad intimate film from writer the writer Robert Kaplow and director Richard Linklater narrates the nearly intolerable account of Broadway lyricist Lorenz Hart right after his separation from Richard Rodgers. His role is portrayed with theatrical excellence, an unspeakable combover and fake smallness by actor Ethan Hawke, who is often digitally shrunk in size – but is also at times filmed standing in an off-camera hole to stare up wistfully at more statuesque figures, confronting Hart’s vertical challenge as actor José Ferrer once played the petite artist Toulouse-Lautrec.

Complex Character and Elements

Hawke gets substantial, jaded humor with Hart's humorous takes on the hidden gayness of the movie Casablanca and the excessively cheerful theater production he just watched, with all the rope-spinning ranch hands; he bitingly labels it Okla-queer. The orientation of Hart is complicated: this film skillfully juxtaposes his queer identity with the non-queer character fabricated for him in the 1948 stage show the production Words and Music (with actor Mickey Rooney acting as Hart); it shrewdly deduces a kind of bisexuality from Hart’s letters to his protégée: young Yale student and budding theater artist Elizabeth Weiland, portrayed in this film with carefree youthful femininity by actress Margaret Qualley.

As a component of the legendary Broadway composing duo with musician Richard Rodgers, Hart was responsible for unparalleled tunes like the classic The Lady Is a Tramp, the number Manhattan, the standard My Funny Valentine and of course the titular Blue Moon. But frustrated by Hart’s alcoholism, unreliability and depressive outbursts, Rodgers broke with him and teamed up with lyricist Oscar Hammerstein II to create the show Oklahoma! and then a multitude of theater and film hits.

Emotional Depth

The movie imagines the deeply depressed Lorenz Hart in Oklahoma!’s premiere NYC crowd in the year 1943, observing with envious despair as the performance continues, hating its mild sappiness, abhorring the exclamation mark at the finish of the heading, but soul-crushingly cognizant of how devastatingly successful it is. He knows a smash when he sees one – and senses himself falling into failure.

Even before the interval, Hart miserably ducks out and makes his way to the tavern at the venue Sardi's where the rest of the film takes place, and waits for the (inevitably) triumphant Oklahoma! company to show up for their post-show celebration. He knows it is his performance responsibility to compliment Rodgers, to act as if all is well. With smooth moderation, Andrew Scott plays Rodgers, obviously uncomfortable at what each understands is Hart's embarrassment; he offers a sop to his pride in the appearance of a short-term gig composing fresh songs for their ongoing performance the musical A Connecticut Yankee, which simply intensifies the pain.

• Actor Bobby Cannavale acts as the barkeeper who in conventional manner hears compassionately to Hart's monologues of vinegary despair
• Actor Patrick Kennedy acts as EB White, to whom Hart accidentally gives the idea for his kids' story Stuart Little
• Qualley acts as Weiland, the impossibly gorgeous Ivy League pupil with whom the picture imagines Hart to be intricately and masochistically in adoration

Lorenz Hart has previously been abandoned by Richard Rodgers. Surely the cosmos couldn't be that harsh as to have him dumped by Weiland as well? But Margaret Qualley mercilessly depicts a girl who desires Hart to be the laughing, platonic friend 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 Hart partly takes observational satisfaction in hearing about these guys but he is also truly, sadly infatuated with Weiland and the movie reveals to us an aspect rarely touched on in films about the realm of stage musicals or the cinema: the awful convergence between occupational and affectionate loss. Yet at one stage, Hart is boldly cognizant that what he has attained will persist. It's a magnificent acting job from Hawke. This might become a stage musical – but who shall compose the numbers?

Blue Moon was shown at the London cinema festival; it is out on the 17th of October in the US, November 14 in the Britain and on 29 January in the Australian continent.