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Parting ways from the more prominent partner in a performance duo is a hazardous affair. Larry David went through it. The same for Musician Andrew Ridgeley. Now, this humorous and deeply sorrowful chamber piece from screenwriter the writer Robert Kaplow and director the director Richard Linklater narrates the almost agonizing tale of musical theater lyricist Lorenz Hart just after his breakup from Richard Rodgers. His role is portrayed with campy brilliance, an notable toupee and simulated diminutiveness by Ethan Hawke, who is frequently technologically minimized in stature – but is also sometimes recorded standing in an hidden depression to stare up wistfully at heightened personas, facing Hart’s vertical challenge as actor José Ferrer previously portrayed the diminutive artist Toulouse-Lautrec.

Complex Character and Motifs

Hawke earns large, cynical chuckles with the character's witty comments on the subtle queer themes of the film Casablanca and the cheesily upbeat theater production he recently attended, with all the rope-spinning ranch hands; he bitingly labels it Okla-gay. The sexuality of Lorenz Hart is complex: this film effectively triangulates his homosexuality with the non-queer character created for him in the 1948 musical Words and Music (with Mickey Rooney playing Hart); it intelligently infers a kind of bisexual tendency from Hart's correspondence to his young apprentice: youthful Yale attendee and aspiring set designer Weiland, acted in this movie with carefree youthful femininity by the performer Margaret Qualley.

As a component of the legendary Broadway composing duo with musician Richard Rodgers, Lorenz Hart was responsible for matchless numbers like the classic The Lady Is a Tramp, the tune Manhattan, the beloved My Funny Valentine and of course Blue Moon. But annoyed at the lyricist's addiction, inconsistency and melancholic episodes, Richard Rodgers ended their partnership and partnered with Oscar Hammerstein II to write the musical Oklahoma! and then a raft of theater and film hits.

Sentimental Layers

The movie conceives the severely despondent Hart in the musical Oklahoma!'s premiere New York audience in 1943, observing with jealous anguish as the show proceeds, despising its insipid emotionality, detesting the exclamation mark at the end of the title, but dishearteningly conscious of how lethally effective it is. He knows a smash when he sees one – and feels himself descending into failure.

Before the intermission, Lorenz Hart miserably ducks out and heads to the bar at the establishment Sardi's where the rest of the film unfolds, and anticipates the (certainly) victorious Oklahoma! company to arrive for their following-event gathering. He knows it is his entertainment obligation to praise Rodgers, to act as if all is well. With suave restraint, the performer Andrew Scott acts as Richard Rodgers, evidently ashamed at what each understands is Hart’s humiliation; he gives a pacifier to his pride in the form of a temporary job writing new numbers for their existing show the show A Connecticut Yankee, which only makes it worse.

• Actor Bobby Cannavale acts as the bartender who in traditional style attends empathetically to the character's soliloquies of bitter despondency
• Patrick Kennedy portrays author EB White, to whom Lorenz Hart inadvertently provides the notion for his children’s book Stuart Little
• The actress Qualley portrays the character Weiland, the inaccessibly lovely Ivy League pupil with whom the film imagines Hart to be complicatedly and self-harmingly in love

Lorenz Hart has previously been abandoned by Richard Rodgers. Surely the universe couldn't be that harsh as to have him dumped by Weiland as well? But Qualley pitilessly acts a young woman who wants 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 promote her occupation.

Acting Excellence

Hawke reveals that Hart partly takes observational satisfaction in hearing about these guys but he is also authentically, mournfully enamored with Elizabeth Weiland and the picture tells us about an aspect rarely touched on in films about the world of musical theatre or the movies: the awful convergence between career and love defeat. However at one stage, Lorenz Hart is rebelliously conscious that what he has achieved will endure. It’s a terrific performance from Hawke. This might become a live show – but who will write the numbers?

The movie Blue Moon screened at the London movie festival; it is out on October 17 in the USA, 14 November in the Britain and on January 29 in Australia.