Blue Moon Review: The Actor Ethan Hawke Excels in Director Richard Linklater's Poignant Showbiz Breakup Drama

Separating from the more prominent collaborator in a showbiz double act is a risky affair. Larry David went through it. So did Andrew Ridgeley. Now, this clever and profoundly melancholic small-scale drama from writer the writer Robert Kaplow and director the director Richard Linklater recounts the almost agonizing tale of songwriter for Broadway the lyricist Lorenz Hart shortly following his split from Richard Rodgers. He is played with flamboyant genius, an unspeakable combover and artificial shortness by actor Ethan Hawke, who is regularly digitally shrunk in size – but is also sometimes filmed standing in an hidden depression to look up poignantly at taller characters, facing the lyricist's stature problem as José Ferrer in the past acted the small-statured artist Toulouse-Lautrec.

Layered Persona and Elements

Hawke gets big, world-weary laughs with the character's witty comments on the subtle queer themes of the movie Casablanca and the excessively cheerful stage show he just watched, with all the lariat-wielding cowhands; he bitingly labels it Okla-gay. The sexuality of Lorenz Hart is complicated: this movie effectively triangulates his gayness with the straight persona invented for him in the 1948 theater piece the production Words and Music (with actor Mickey Rooney acting as Lorenz Hart); it intelligently infers a kind of bisexual tendency from the lyricist's writings to his protégée: young Yale student and would-be stage designer Weiland, acted in this movie with heedless girlishness by the performer Margaret Qualley.

Being a member of the famous Broadway lyricist-composer pair with musician Richard Rodgers, Lorenz Hart was responsible for incomparable songs like the classic The Lady Is a Tramp, Manhattan, the beloved My Funny Valentine and of course the titular Blue Moon. But annoyed at the lyricist's addiction, inconsistency and depressive outbursts, Richard Rodgers broke with him and joined forces with lyricist Oscar Hammerstein II to write Oklahoma! and then a series of theater and film hits.

Emotional Depth

The film envisions the severely despondent Lorenz Hart in the show Oklahoma!'s opening night New York audience in 1943, looking on with jealous anguish as the production unfolds, despising its insipid emotionality, hating the exclamation mark at the end of the title, but heartsinkingly aware of how extremely potent it is. He realizes a smash when he watches it – and senses himself falling into defeat.

Before the break, Lorenz Hart miserably ducks out and heads to the pub at the venue Sardi's where the remainder of the movie takes place, and waits for the (unavoidably) successful Oklahoma! troupe to show up for their post-show celebration. He is aware it is his showbiz duty to praise Rodgers, to feign things are fine. With polished control, the performer Andrew Scott portrays Richard Rodgers, clearly embarrassed at what each understands is the lyricist's shame; he gives a pacifier to his pride in the form of a short-term gig creating additional tunes for their ongoing performance A Connecticut Yankee, which simply intensifies the pain.

• The performer Bobby Cannavale plays the barman who in conventional manner listens sympathetically to Hart's monologues of bitter despondency
• The thespian Patrick Kennedy acts as author EB White, to whom Lorenz Hart unintentionally offers the idea for his youth literature Stuart Little
• The actress Qualley plays Elizabeth Weiland, the impossibly gorgeous Ivy League pupil with whom the movie envisions Lorenz Hart to be complexly and self-destructively in love

Lorenz Hart has earlier been rejected by Richard Rodgers. Undoubtedly the universe can’t be so cruel as to get him jilted by Elizabeth Weiland as well? But Margaret Qualley pitilessly acts a youthful female who wants Lorenz Hart to be the giggly, sexually unthreatening intimate to whom she can confide her experiences with boys – as well of course the showbiz connection who can promote her occupation.

Standout Roles

Hawke demonstrates that Hart to a degree enjoys observational satisfaction in listening to these boys but he is also genuinely, tragically besotted with Weiland and the movie informs us of something rarely touched on in films about the domain of theater music or the movies: the dreadful intersection between career and love defeat. However at a certain point, Lorenz Hart is rebelliously conscious that what he has attained will persist. It's an outstanding portrayal from Hawke. This could be a live show – but who will write the songs?

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