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Parting ways from the more famous partner in a entertainment double act is a hazardous affair. Comedian Larry David went through it. Likewise Musician Andrew Ridgeley. Currently, this witty and profoundly melancholic chamber piece from writer Robert Kaplow and filmmaker Richard Linklater recounts the nearly intolerable tale of songwriter for Broadway the lyricist Lorenz Hart right after his breakup from Richard Rodgers. The character is acted with theatrical excellence, an unspeakable combover and fake smallness by Ethan Hawke, who is frequently technologically minimized in stature – but is also at times shot standing in an hidden depression to gaze upward sadly at heightened personas, addressing Hart’s vertical challenge as actor José Ferrer once played the petite Toulouse-Lautrec.

Layered Persona and Elements

Hawke achieves substantial, jaded humor with Hart's humorous takes on the subtle queer themes of the classic Casablanca and the overly optimistic theater production he’s just been to see, with all the rope-spinning ranch hands; he bitingly labels it Okla-homo. The sexuality of Lorenz Hart is complicated: this picture effectively triangulates his queer identity with the straight persona created for him in the 1948 theater piece the musical Words and Music (with actor Mickey Rooney portraying Hart); it intelligently infers a kind of bisexual tendency from Hart's correspondence to his protege: youthful Yale attendee and aspiring set designer the character Elizabeth Weiland, portrayed in this film with carefree youthful femininity by the performer Margaret Qualley.

As a component of the famous New York theater composing duo with musician Richard Rodgers, Lorenz Hart was accountable for unparalleled tunes like the song The Lady Is a Tramp, the number Manhattan, the standard My Funny Valentine and of course the song Blue Moon. But exasperated with Hart's drinking problem, unreliability and melancholic episodes, Richard Rodgers ended their partnership and partnered with lyricist Oscar Hammerstein II to write the show Oklahoma! and then a multitude of theater and film hits.

Sentimental Layers

The movie envisions the deeply depressed Hart in the musical Oklahoma!'s first-night New York audience in 1943, looking on with jealous anguish as the show proceeds, hating its mild sappiness, hating the punctuation mark at the end of the title, but dishearteningly conscious of how devastatingly successful it is. He knows a smash when he views it – and feels himself descending into defeat.

Prior to the interval, Hart sadly slips away and heads to the bar at the venue Sardi's where the remainder of the movie takes place, and expects the (inevitably) triumphant Oklahoma! troupe to appear for their after-party. He knows it is his showbiz duty to congratulate Richard Rodgers, to pretend everything is all right. With suave restraint, Andrew Scott acts as Richard Rodgers, obviously uncomfortable at what both are aware is Hart’s humiliation; he offers a sop to his ego in the guise of a brief assignment composing fresh songs for their ongoing performance the show A Connecticut Yankee, which simply intensifies the pain.

• The performer Bobby Cannavale plays the barkeeper who in traditional style listens sympathetically to Hart's monologues of vinegary despair
• Patrick Kennedy acts as author EB White, to whom Hart unintentionally offers the notion for his youth literature the novel Stuart Little
• Qualley portrays the character Weiland, the impossibly gorgeous Yale attendee with whom the picture imagines Lorenz Hart to be complicatedly and self-harmingly in affection

Lorenz Hart has earlier been rejected by Richard Rodgers. Surely the universe couldn't be that harsh as to have him dumped by Elizabeth Weiland as well? But Qualley mercilessly depicts a young woman who wants Lorenz Hart to be the chuckling, non-sexual confidant to whom she can reveal her adventures with young men – as well of course the Broadway power broker who can promote her occupation.

Standout Roles

Hawke shows that Lorenz Hart to a degree enjoys voyeuristic pleasure in hearing about these guys but he is also truly, sadly infatuated with Elizabeth Weiland and the film informs us of an aspect infrequently explored in movies about the world of musical theatre or the films: the awful convergence between professional and romantic failure. Nevertheless at one stage, Lorenz Hart is boldly cognizant that what he has achieved will endure. It's a magnificent acting job from Ethan Hawke. This could be a stage musical – but who will write the tunes?

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