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Parting ways from the more prominent colleague in a performance double act is a hazardous affair. Larry David experienced it. The same for Andrew Ridgeley. Now, this humorous and profoundly melancholic small-scale drama from scriptwriter Robert Kaplow and helmer the director Richard Linklater recounts the almost agonizing tale of musical theater lyricist Lorenz Hart just after his breakup from Richard Rodgers. His role is portrayed with flamboyant genius, an notable toupee and fake smallness by actor Ethan Hawke, who is frequently digitally shrunk in stature – but is also sometimes shot placed in an unseen pit to look up poignantly at taller characters, confronting Hart's height issue as José Ferrer in the past acted the small-statured artist Toulouse-Lautrec.

Complex Character and Themes

Hawke gets substantial, jaded humor with the character's witty comments on the hidden gayness of the film Casablanca and the cheesily upbeat theater production he recently attended, with all the lariat-wielding cowhands; he acidly calls it Okla-queer. The orientation of Hart is complicated: this movie skillfully juxtaposes his gayness with the heterosexual image created for him in the 1948 musical the production Words and Music (with actor Mickey Rooney portraying Lorenz Hart); it intelligently infers a kind of dual attraction from Hart's correspondence to his protégée: young Yale student and aspiring set designer Elizabeth Weiland, played here with heedless girlishness by actress Margaret Qualley.

Being a member of the renowned Broadway lyricist-composer pair with musician Richard Rodgers, Lorenz Hart was responsible for incomparable songs like the classic The Lady Is a Tramp, the number Manhattan, the beloved My Funny Valentine and of course Blue Moon. But frustrated by the lyricist's addiction, undependability and gloomy fits, Richard Rodgers severed ties with him and partnered with Oscar Hammerstein II to create the musical Oklahoma! and then a multitude of stage and screen smashes.

Sentimental Layers

The movie envisions the deeply depressed Lorenz Hart in the show Oklahoma!'s premiere New York audience in 1943, observing with covetous misery as the show proceeds, hating its insipid emotionality, hating the punctuation mark at the finish of the heading, but soul-crushingly cognizant of how extremely potent it is. He realizes a smash when he sees one – and senses himself falling into unsuccessfulness.

Even before the break, Hart miserably ducks out and heads to the tavern at Sardi’s where the rest of the film unfolds, and anticipates the (inevitably) triumphant Oklahoma! troupe to arrive for their after-party. He realizes it is his showbiz duty to praise Rodgers, to pretend all is well. With smooth moderation, the performer Andrew Scott plays Rodgers, obviously uncomfortable at what they both know is Hart's embarrassment; he gives a pacifier to his self-esteem in the guise of a brief assignment writing new numbers for their existing show A Connecticut Yankee, which simply intensifies the pain.

• Actor Bobby Cannavale plays the bartender who in standard fashion attends empathetically to Hart’s arias of vinegary despair
• The thespian Patrick Kennedy plays author EB White, to whom Hart accidentally gives the concept for his children’s book Stuart Little
• Margaret Qualley acts as Weiland, the unattainably beautiful Ivy League pupil with whom the film envisions Lorenz Hart to be complicatedly and self-harmingly in love

Lorenz Hart has already been jilted by Rodgers. Certainly the universe couldn't be that harsh as to have him dumped by Elizabeth Weiland as well? But Qualley mercilessly depicts a girl who desires Hart to be the chuckling, non-sexual confidant to whom she can reveal her experiences with guys – as well of course the Broadway power broker who can advance her profession.

Standout Roles

Hawke shows that Lorenz Hart partly takes spectator's delight in hearing about these young men but he is also authentically, mournfully enamored with Elizabeth Weiland and the movie informs us of an aspect infrequently explored in pictures about the world of musical theatre or the movies: the dreadful intersection between career and love defeat. Yet at a certain point, Hart is boldly cognizant that what he has attained will survive. It's an outstanding portrayal from Ethan Hawke. This may turn into a theater production – but who would create the tunes?

The film Blue Moon premiered at the London film festival; it is released on October 17 in the US, November 14 in the Britain and on 29 January in the land down under.