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Separating from the more prominent colleague in a entertainment double act is a dangerous endeavor. Comedian Larry David went through it. Likewise Musician Andrew Ridgeley. Currently, this humorous and profoundly melancholic chamber piece from writer Robert Kaplow and helmer Richard Linklater tells the almost agonizing tale of Broadway lyricist the lyricist Lorenz Hart right after his breakup from composer Richard Rodgers. The character is acted with theatrical excellence, an notable toupee and artificial shortness by actor Ethan Hawke, who is often digitally reduced in height – but is also occasionally shot positioned in an unseen pit to stare up wistfully at more statuesque figures, facing Hart’s vertical challenge as José Ferrer in the past acted the diminutive artist Toulouse-Lautrec.

Complex Character and Elements

Hawke earns substantial, jaded humor with Hart's humorous takes on the concealed homosexuality of the film Casablanca and the overly optimistic stage show he just watched, with all the rope-spinning ranch hands; he sarcastically dubs it Okla-homo. The sexual identity of Lorenz Hart is multifaceted: this movie clearly contrasts his gayness with the non-queer character invented for him in the 1948 theater piece the production Words and Music (with Mickey Rooney portraying Hart); it cleverly extrapolates a kind of bisexuality from Hart's correspondence to his protege: youthful Yale attendee and aspiring set designer Elizabeth Weiland, acted in this movie with heedless girlishness by Margaret Qualley.

Being a member of the legendary musical theater lyricist-composer pair with the composer Rodgers, Hart was in charge of unparalleled tunes like The Lady Is a Tramp, the number Manhattan, My Funny Valentine and of course the titular Blue Moon. But frustrated by Hart’s alcoholism, unreliability and depressive outbursts, Rodgers broke with him and joined forces with the writer Oscar Hammerstein II to compose the show Oklahoma! and then a multitude of stage and screen smashes.

Psychological Complexity

The movie imagines the profoundly saddened Lorenz Hart in the musical Oklahoma!'s first-night Manhattan spectators in 1943, observing with envious despair as the performance continues, despising its mild sappiness, detesting the exclamation point at the end of the title, but heartsinkingly aware of how extremely potent it is. He realizes a hit when he views it – and perceives himself sinking into unsuccessfulness.

Even before the break, Lorenz Hart sadly slips away and goes to the pub at the venue Sardi's where the rest of the film unfolds, and expects the (certainly) victorious Oklahoma! company to arrive for their after-party. He realizes it is his performance responsibility to praise Richard Rodgers, to pretend things are fine. With suave restraint, Andrew Scott acts as Rodgers, obviously uncomfortable at what both are aware is the lyricist's shame; he offers a sop to his self-esteem in the guise of a short-term gig creating additional tunes for their existing show the musical A Connecticut Yankee, which only makes it worse.

• Bobby Cannavale acts as the barman who in traditional style attends empathetically to Hart’s arias of acerbic misery
• Patrick Kennedy plays writer EB White, to whom Lorenz Hart inadvertently provides the idea for his kids' story Stuart Little
• The actress Qualley acts as the character Weiland, the unattainably beautiful Yale attendee with whom the movie envisions Hart to be intricately and masochistically in love

Lorenz Hart has previously been abandoned by Richard Rodgers. Surely the universe wouldn't be that brutal as to cause him to be spurned by Elizabeth Weiland as well? But Qualley mercilessly depicts a girl who desires Lorenz Hart to be the giggly, sexually unthreatening intimate to whom she can reveal her adventures with young men – as well of course the Broadway power broker who can further her career.

Performance Highlights

Hawke demonstrates that Hart somewhat derives observational satisfaction in hearing about these boys but he is also truly, sadly infatuated with Elizabeth Weiland and the picture tells us about an aspect infrequently explored in films about the world of musical theatre or the films: the awful convergence between professional and romantic failure. However at a certain point, Hart is rebelliously conscious that what he has attained will endure. It's a magnificent acting job from Ethan Hawke. This might become a live show – but who shall compose the numbers?

Blue Moon premiered at the London cinema festival; it is available on 17 October in the USA, November 14 in the United Kingdom and on 29 January in the land down under.