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Breaking up from the more famous partner in a entertainment partnership is a risky affair. Comedian Larry David went through it. So did Andrew Ridgeley. Now, this clever and profoundly melancholic intimate film from scriptwriter the writer Robert Kaplow and filmmaker Richard Linklater narrates the nearly intolerable tale of musical theater lyricist Lorenz Hart shortly following his separation from Richard Rodgers. He is played with flamboyant genius, an notable toupee and simulated diminutiveness by actor Ethan Hawke, who is regularly digitally shrunk in size – but is also at times shot positioned in an off-camera hole to look up poignantly at taller characters, confronting Hart’s vertical challenge as José Ferrer once played the petite Toulouse-Lautrec.

Complex Character and Elements

Hawke gets big, world-weary laughs with Hart's humorous takes on the subtle queer themes of the movie Casablanca and the excessively cheerful theater production he recently attended, with all the rope-spinning ranch hands; he bitingly labels it Okla-homo. The sexuality of Hart is complicated: this film effectively triangulates his gayness with the non-queer character fabricated for him in the 1948 theater piece the production Words and Music (with Mickey Rooney portraying Lorenz Hart); it cleverly extrapolates a kind of bisexuality from the lyricist's writings to his protege: college student at Yale and would-be stage designer Elizabeth Weiland, played here with uninhibited maidenly charm by Margaret Qualley.

As a component of the renowned Broadway composing duo with the composer Rodgers, Hart was responsible for unparalleled tunes like the classic The Lady Is a Tramp, Manhattan, the standard My Funny Valentine and of course Blue Moon. But exasperated with Hart’s alcoholism, undependability and gloomy fits, Rodgers ended their partnership and partnered with the writer Oscar Hammerstein II to write the musical Oklahoma! and then a multitude of theater and film hits.

Emotional Depth

The film imagines the profoundly saddened Hart in Oklahoma!’s opening night Manhattan spectators in the year 1943, looking on with covetous misery as the show proceeds, loathing its mild sappiness, detesting the exclamation point at the conclusion of the name, but dishearteningly conscious of how lethally effective it is. He realizes a hit when he sees one – and feels himself descending into defeat.

Even before the break, Hart unhappily departs and goes to the tavern at the establishment Sardi's where the rest of the film occurs, and expects the (unavoidably) successful Oklahoma! troupe to show up for their after-party. He is aware it is his showbiz duty to compliment Rodgers, to feign all is well. With smooth moderation, actor Andrew Scott plays Richard Rodgers, obviously uncomfortable at what each understands is the lyricist's shame; he gives a pacifier to his pride in the form of a temporary job creating additional tunes for their ongoing performance the show A Connecticut Yankee, which simply intensifies the pain.

• Actor Bobby Cannavale portrays the bartender who in conventional manner listens sympathetically to the character's soliloquies of vinegary despair
• Patrick Kennedy plays author EB White, to whom Hart inadvertently provides the concept for his kids' story Stuart Little
• The actress Qualley acts as Elizabeth Weiland, the unattainably beautiful Ivy League pupil with whom the movie envisions Hart to be intricately and masochistically in affection

Lorenz Hart has already been jilted by Rodgers. Surely the cosmos couldn't be that harsh as to have him dumped by Elizabeth Weiland as well? But Qualley ruthlessly portrays a youthful female who wishes Hart to be the giggly, sexually unthreatening intimate to whom she can disclose her experiences with young men – as well of course the Broadway power broker who can advance her profession.

Standout Roles

Hawke shows that Lorenz Hart somewhat derives voyeuristic pleasure in listening to these young men but he is also authentically, mournfully enamored with Weiland and the picture informs us of something infrequently explored in pictures about the realm of stage musicals or the films: the dreadful intersection between occupational and affectionate loss. However at some level, Lorenz Hart is boldly cognizant that what he has attained will endure. It's an outstanding portrayal from Ethan Hawke. This may turn into a stage musical – but who shall compose the songs?

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