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Separating from the more famous collaborator in a performance double act is a risky business. Larry David experienced it. Likewise Musician Andrew Ridgeley. Now, this clever and deeply sorrowful small-scale drama from scriptwriter the writer Robert Kaplow and director Richard Linklater recounts the almost agonizing account of songwriter for Broadway the lyricist Lorenz Hart just after his breakup from composer Richard Rodgers. He is played with campy brilliance, an unspeakable combover and simulated diminutiveness by actor Ethan Hawke, who is frequently digitally reduced in stature – but is also sometimes filmed placed in an off-camera hole to stare up wistfully at more statuesque figures, confronting Hart’s vertical challenge as actor José Ferrer in the past acted the petite Toulouse-Lautrec.

Layered Persona and Elements

Hawke gets large, cynical chuckles with the character's witty comments on the subtle queer themes of the movie Casablanca and the excessively cheerful theater production he just watched, with all the rope-spinning ranch hands; he acidly calls it Okla-queer. The sexual identity of Hart is complicated: this picture effectively triangulates his queer identity with the straight persona invented for him in the 1948 theater piece the musical Words and Music (with actor Mickey Rooney acting as Lorenz Hart); it shrewdly deduces a kind of dual attraction from Hart's correspondence to his protege: young Yale student and aspiring set designer Weiland, played here with carefree youthful femininity by Margaret Qualley.

As part of the renowned New York theater songwriting team with musician Richard Rodgers, Lorenz Hart was responsible for unparalleled tunes like the song The Lady Is a Tramp, the number Manhattan, the beloved My Funny Valentine and of course the song Blue Moon. But exasperated with Hart’s alcoholism, undependability and gloomy fits, Rodgers ended their partnership and teamed up with the writer Oscar Hammerstein II to compose the show Oklahoma! and then a raft of theater and film hits.

Sentimental Layers

The picture envisions the severely despondent Hart in Oklahoma!’s premiere Manhattan spectators in the year 1943, observing with envious despair as the production unfolds, loathing its insipid emotionality, abhorring the exclamation point at the conclusion of the name, but heartsinkingly aware of how devastatingly successful it is. He realizes a success when he watches it – and perceives himself sinking into failure.

Prior to the intermission, Hart unhappily departs and makes his way to the bar at the establishment Sardi's where the remainder of the movie unfolds, and waits for the (inevitably) triumphant Oklahoma! troupe to arrive for their after-party. He realizes it is his showbiz duty to praise Rodgers, to act as if everything is all right. With smooth moderation, the performer Andrew Scott acts as Rodgers, obviously uncomfortable at what both are aware is Hart's embarrassment; he provides a consolation to his pride in the appearance of a short-term gig composing fresh songs for their ongoing performance A Connecticut Yankee, which simply intensifies the pain.

• Actor Bobby Cannavale plays the barman who in conventional manner listens sympathetically to Hart’s arias of bitter despondency
• The thespian Patrick Kennedy portrays writer EB White, to whom Hart inadvertently provides the idea for his children’s book the novel Stuart Little
• Margaret Qualley portrays Elizabeth Weiland, the inaccessibly lovely Ivy League pupil with whom the movie conceives Lorenz Hart to be complexly and self-destructively in affection

Hart has already been jilted by Rodgers. Undoubtedly the cosmos couldn't be that harsh as to get him jilted by Elizabeth Weiland as well? But Qualley mercilessly depicts a girl who wishes Lorenz Hart to be the laughing, platonic friend to whom she can reveal her adventures with boys – as well of course the showbiz connection who can advance her profession.

Standout Roles

Hawke demonstrates that Lorenz Hart to a degree enjoys observational satisfaction in learning of these young men but he is also truly, sadly infatuated with Elizabeth Weiland and the movie reveals to us a factor rarely touched on in pictures about the realm of stage musicals or the cinema: the terrible overlap between occupational and affectionate loss. However at a certain point, Lorenz Hart is boldly cognizant that what he has achieved will survive. It's an outstanding portrayal from Hawke. This might become a theater production – but who will write the songs?

The film Blue Moon screened at the London movie festival; it is out on the 17th of October in the US, November 14 in the Britain and on January 29 in the Australian continent.