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Separating from the more prominent partner in a showbiz duo is a risky business. Comedian Larry David did it. So did Musician Andrew Ridgeley. Currently, this witty and heartbreakingly sad intimate film from screenwriter Robert Kaplow and helmer the director Richard Linklater narrates the nearly intolerable tale of songwriter for Broadway the lyricist Lorenz Hart right after his split from composer Richard Rodgers. The character is acted with theatrical excellence, an notable toupee and artificial shortness by Ethan Hawke, who is frequently digitally shrunk in height – but is also occasionally recorded placed in an unseen pit to look up poignantly at taller characters, confronting Hart’s vertical challenge as José Ferrer in the past acted the small-statured Toulouse-Lautrec.

Multifaceted Role and Motifs

Hawke gets substantial, jaded humor with the character's witty comments on the hidden gayness of the classic Casablanca and the excessively cheerful stage show he recently attended, with all the lariat-wielding cowhands; he sarcastically dubs it Okla-homo. The sexuality of Lorenz Hart is complex: this movie clearly contrasts his queer identity with the heterosexual image invented for him in the 1948 musical the musical Words and Music (with actor Mickey Rooney acting as Lorenz Hart); it cleverly extrapolates a kind of bisexuality from the lyricist's writings to his protege: youthful Yale attendee and aspiring set designer Elizabeth Weiland, portrayed in this film with uninhibited maidenly charm by actress Margaret Qualley.

As part of the renowned New York theater songwriting team with composer Rodgers, Hart was accountable for unparalleled tunes like the classic The Lady Is a Tramp, the tune Manhattan, the beloved My Funny Valentine and of course Blue Moon. But frustrated by the lyricist's addiction, undependability and gloomy fits, Richard Rodgers ended their partnership and partnered with the writer Oscar Hammerstein II to compose the show Oklahoma! and then a series of live and cinematic successes.

Psychological Complexity

The movie imagines the deeply depressed Hart in the show Oklahoma!'s first-night Manhattan spectators in 1943, gazing with covetous misery as the performance continues, loathing its insipid emotionality, detesting the exclamation mark at the end of the title, but heartsinkingly aware of how devastatingly successful it is. He understands a smash when he watches it – and perceives himself sinking into failure.

Before the interval, Hart unhappily departs and makes his way to the tavern at Sardi’s where the remainder of the movie occurs, and waits for the (inevitably) triumphant Oklahoma! troupe to appear for their post-show celebration. He is aware it is his entertainment obligation to compliment Rodgers, to act as if everything is all right. With suave restraint, the performer Andrew Scott acts as Rodgers, obviously uncomfortable at what both are aware is the lyricist's shame; he provides a consolation to his self-esteem in the guise of a brief assignment composing fresh songs for their current production the show A Connecticut Yankee, which just exacerbates the situation.

• Actor Bobby Cannavale plays the bartender who in standard fashion hears compassionately to Hart's monologues of vinegary despair
• Patrick Kennedy acts as writer EB White, to whom Hart inadvertently provides the concept for his youth literature Stuart Little
• The actress Qualley plays Weiland, the unattainably beautiful Yale student with whom the picture envisions Lorenz Hart to be intricately and masochistically in love

Lorenz Hart has earlier been rejected by Richard Rodgers. Surely the cosmos can’t be so cruel as to cause him to be spurned by Elizabeth Weiland as well? But Margaret Qualley mercilessly depicts a youthful female who desires Hart to be the laughing, platonic friend to whom she can disclose her experiences with guys – as well of course the theater industry influencer who can advance her profession.

Performance Highlights

Hawke shows that Hart somewhat derives spectator's delight in learning of these young men but he is also genuinely, tragically besotted with Elizabeth Weiland and the movie reveals to us something infrequently explored in movies about the world of musical theatre or the films: the awful convergence between professional and romantic failure. However at one stage, Hart is defiantly aware that what he has accomplished will persist. It's an outstanding portrayal from Ethan Hawke. This may turn into a live show – but who will write the songs?

The film Blue Moon premiered at the London cinema festival; it is released on October 17 in the United States, 14 November in the UK and on January 29 in Australia.