Blue Moon Analysis: Ethan Hawke Shines in Richard Linklater's Bitter Broadway Parting Tale

Breaking up from the more famous collaborator in a showbiz partnership is a hazardous business. Larry David experienced it. Likewise Andrew Ridgeley. Now, this witty and profoundly melancholic chamber piece from screenwriter Robert Kaplow and filmmaker Richard Linklater recounts the almost agonizing story of musical theater lyricist Lorenz Hart shortly following his breakup from Richard Rodgers. His role is portrayed with campy brilliance, an notable toupee and artificial shortness by actor Ethan Hawke, who is frequently digitally shrunk in stature – but is also at times shot positioned in an off-camera hole to look up poignantly at more statuesque figures, facing Hart's height issue as actor José Ferrer in the past acted the small-statured artist Toulouse-Lautrec.

Layered Persona and Motifs

Hawke earns large, cynical chuckles with Hart’s riffs on the concealed homosexuality of the film Casablanca and the excessively cheerful musical he recently attended, with all the lasso-twirling cowboys; he bitingly labels it Okla-homo. The orientation of Hart is multifaceted: this movie clearly contrasts his gayness with the straight persona invented for him in the 1948 theater piece the production Words and Music (with Mickey Rooney playing Lorenz Hart); it shrewdly deduces a kind of bisexuality from Hart’s letters to his protégée: young Yale student and would-be stage designer Weiland, played here with heedless girlishness by actress Margaret Qualley.

Being a member of the renowned New York theater lyricist-composer pair with composer Rodgers, Lorenz Hart was in charge of incomparable songs like The Lady Is a Tramp, Manhattan, the beloved My Funny Valentine and of course the titular Blue Moon. But annoyed at Hart's drinking problem, undependability and gloomy fits, Richard Rodgers severed ties with him and partnered with lyricist Oscar Hammerstein II to compose the musical Oklahoma! and then a raft of theater and film hits.

Emotional Depth

The picture imagines the deeply depressed Hart in the show Oklahoma!'s first-night NYC crowd in 1943, observing with envious despair as the show proceeds, despising its mild sappiness, abhorring the punctuation mark at the end of the title, but dishearteningly conscious of how lethally effective it is. He understands a hit when he sees one – and senses himself falling into failure.

Before the intermission, Lorenz Hart unhappily departs and heads to the tavern at the establishment Sardi's where the balance of the picture unfolds, and waits for the (inevitably) triumphant Oklahoma! cast to appear for their after-party. He knows it is his entertainment obligation to praise Rodgers, to act as if all is well. With suave restraint, the performer Andrew Scott plays Rodgers, clearly embarrassed at what both are aware is Hart's embarrassment; he gives a pacifier to his self-esteem in the appearance of a temporary job creating additional tunes for their ongoing performance the musical A Connecticut Yankee, which just exacerbates the situation.

• The performer Bobby Cannavale portrays the barman who in traditional style listens sympathetically to Hart's monologues of bitter despondency
• Patrick Kennedy acts as writer EB White, to whom Lorenz Hart inadvertently provides the concept for his children’s book the book Stuart Little
• The actress Qualley plays Elizabeth Weiland, the impossibly gorgeous Yale student with whom the picture imagines Lorenz Hart to be intricately and masochistically in affection

Hart has earlier been rejected by Richard Rodgers. Undoubtedly the world can’t be so cruel as to cause him to be spurned by Elizabeth Weiland as well? But Margaret Qualley ruthlessly portrays a young woman who desires Lorenz Hart to be the laughing, platonic friend to whom she can reveal her exploits with guys – as well of course the Broadway power broker who can further her career.

Standout Roles

Hawke reveals that Lorenz Hart partly takes voyeuristic pleasure in listening to these guys but he is also truly, sadly infatuated with Elizabeth Weiland and the picture informs us of a factor infrequently explored in films about the world of musical theatre or the films: the terrible overlap between occupational and affectionate loss. However at one stage, Hart is boldly cognizant that what he has attained will survive. It's an outstanding portrayal from Ethan Hawke. This could be a live show – but who would create the tunes?

The film Blue Moon was shown at the London movie festival; it is available on the 17th of October in the United States, November 14 in the United Kingdom and on 29 January in the land down under.