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Parting ways from the better-known colleague in a entertainment duo is a risky endeavor. Comedian Larry David went through it. So did Andrew Ridgeley. Presently, this witty and heartbreakingly sad small-scale drama from scriptwriter Robert Kaplow and helmer the director Richard Linklater tells the almost agonizing story of musical theater lyricist Lorenz Hart shortly following his separation from Richard Rodgers. The character is acted with campy brilliance, an dreadful hairpiece and artificial shortness by actor Ethan Hawke, who is regularly digitally reduced in height – but is also sometimes filmed standing in an unseen pit to gaze upward sadly at more statuesque figures, facing Hart’s vertical challenge as actor José Ferrer in the past acted the petite artist Toulouse-Lautrec.

Complex Character and Themes

Hawke gets large, cynical chuckles with the character's witty comments on the concealed homosexuality of the movie Casablanca and the excessively cheerful musical he just watched, with all the lasso-twirling cowboys; he acidly calls it Okla-gay. The sexual identity of Hart is multifaceted: this film clearly contrasts his gayness with the straight persona created for him in the 1948 musical Words and Music (with actor Mickey Rooney playing Hart); it cleverly extrapolates a kind of dual attraction from Hart's correspondence to his protege: young Yale student and aspiring set designer Weiland, acted in this movie with uninhibited maidenly charm by the performer Margaret Qualley.

Being a member of the renowned musical theater songwriting team with the composer Rodgers, Hart was in charge of incomparable songs like The Lady Is a Tramp, the tune Manhattan, My Funny Valentine and of course Blue Moon. But frustrated by Hart's drinking problem, undependability and melancholic episodes, Richard Rodgers ended their partnership and joined forces with Oscar Hammerstein II to write the musical Oklahoma! and then a raft of theater and film hits.

Sentimental Layers

The movie conceives the profoundly saddened Hart in the show Oklahoma!'s premiere Manhattan spectators in 1943, observing with jealous anguish as the production unfolds, hating its mild sappiness, abhorring the exclamation mark at the conclusion of the name, but soul-crushingly cognizant of how extremely potent it is. He knows a success when he sees one – and perceives himself sinking into failure.

Before the interval, Lorenz Hart miserably ducks out and makes his way to the tavern at the venue Sardi's where the rest of the film occurs, and expects the (certainly) victorious Oklahoma! troupe to show up for their post-show celebration. He is aware it is his entertainment obligation to praise Richard Rodgers, to pretend things are fine. With suave restraint, the performer Andrew Scott portrays Rodgers, clearly embarrassed at what they both know is the lyricist's shame; he offers a sop to his pride in the guise of a short-term gig composing fresh songs for their ongoing performance the musical A Connecticut Yankee, which just exacerbates the situation.

• The performer Bobby Cannavale portrays the barman who in traditional style attends empathetically to Hart’s arias of bitter despondency
• The thespian Patrick Kennedy plays author EB White, to whom Hart accidentally gives the idea for his kids' story Stuart Little
• Margaret Qualley portrays Weiland, the unattainably beautiful Yale student with whom the movie envisions Lorenz Hart to be intricately and masochistically in love

Lorenz Hart has earlier been rejected by Richard Rodgers. Certainly the universe couldn't be that harsh as to get him jilted by Weiland as well? But Qualley ruthlessly portrays a young woman who wishes Hart to be the chuckling, non-sexual confidant to whom she can confide her experiences with guys – as well of course the showbiz connection who can further her career.

Standout Roles

Hawke demonstrates that Lorenz Hart somewhat derives voyeuristic pleasure in hearing about these boys but he is also truly, sadly infatuated with Weiland and the picture reveals to us a factor seldom addressed in pictures about the realm of stage musicals or the movies: the dreadful intersection between career and love defeat. However at a certain point, Lorenz Hart is boldly cognizant that what he has accomplished will survive. It’s a terrific performance from Ethan Hawke. This could be a live show – but who shall compose the songs?

Blue Moon premiered at the London movie festival; it is released on 17 October in the US, the 14th of November in the Britain and on 29 January in Australia.