Separating from the better-known partner in a performance double act is a dangerous affair. Comedian Larry David experienced it. Likewise Andrew Ridgeley. Presently, this clever and profoundly melancholic chamber piece from scriptwriter the writer Robert Kaplow and helmer Richard Linklater recounts the nearly intolerable tale of musical theater lyricist Lorenz Hart shortly following his separation from composer Richard Rodgers. The character is acted with flamboyant genius, an unspeakable combover and simulated diminutiveness by actor Ethan Hawke, who is frequently digitally shrunk in stature – but is also occasionally shot positioned in an off-camera hole to look up poignantly at taller characters, facing Hart’s vertical challenge as José Ferrer once played the diminutive artist Toulouse-Lautrec.
Layered Persona and Elements
Hawke gets big, world-weary laughs with Hart’s riffs on the subtle queer themes of the classic Casablanca and the overly optimistic stage show he just watched, with all the rope-spinning ranch hands; he acidly calls it Okla-homo. The sexuality of Hart is complicated: this film clearly contrasts his gayness with the non-queer character invented for him in the 1948 musical the production Words and Music (with actor Mickey Rooney portraying Hart); it shrewdly deduces a kind of bisexuality from Hart’s letters to his young apprentice: youthful Yale attendee and aspiring set designer the character Elizabeth Weiland, portrayed in this film with heedless girlishness by Margaret Qualley.
As part of the renowned New York theater songwriting team with the composer Rodgers, Hart was in charge of unparalleled tunes like the classic The Lady Is a Tramp, the tune Manhattan, the beloved My Funny Valentine and of course the titular Blue Moon. But exasperated with the lyricist's addiction, unreliability and melancholic episodes, Richard Rodgers severed ties with him and partnered with Oscar Hammerstein II to create the show Oklahoma! and then a raft of live and cinematic successes.
Psychological Complexity
The picture imagines the profoundly saddened Hart in the show Oklahoma!'s premiere Manhattan spectators in 1943, gazing with jealous anguish as the performance continues, loathing its mild sappiness, detesting the exclamation mark at the conclusion of the name, but heartsinkingly aware of how lethally effective it is. He knows a success when he watches it – and perceives himself sinking into defeat.
Even before the break, Hart unhappily departs and goes to the tavern at Sardi’s where the balance of the picture occurs, and expects the (certainly) victorious Oklahoma! company to arrive for their post-show celebration. He is aware it is his showbiz duty to compliment Richard Rodgers, to pretend everything is all right. With smooth moderation, the performer Andrew Scott acts as Richard Rodgers, evidently ashamed at what both are aware is Hart’s humiliation; he gives a pacifier to his pride in the form of a temporary job writing new numbers for their ongoing performance A Connecticut Yankee, which simply intensifies the pain.
- The performer Bobby Cannavale portrays the barman who in standard fashion attends empathetically to Hart's monologues of acerbic misery
- The thespian Patrick Kennedy portrays writer EB White, to whom Hart inadvertently provides the idea for his youth literature the novel Stuart Little
- The actress Qualley portrays Elizabeth Weiland, the inaccessibly lovely Yale student with whom the movie conceives Hart to be complicatedly and self-harmingly in affection
Hart has already been jilted by Richard Rodgers. Surely the universe couldn't be that harsh as to have him dumped by Weiland as well? But Margaret Qualley ruthlessly portrays a young woman who wishes Hart to be the giggly, sexually unthreatening intimate to whom she can reveal her exploits with guys – as well of course the showbiz connection who can further her career.
Acting Excellence
Hawke demonstrates that Lorenz Hart to a degree enjoys observational satisfaction in learning of these guys but he is also truly, sadly infatuated with Weiland and the movie informs us of a factor rarely touched on in films about the realm of stage musicals or the films: the dreadful intersection between career and love defeat. However at some level, Hart is boldly cognizant that what he has achieved will endure. It’s a terrific performance from Hawke. This may turn into a theater production – but who will write the tunes?
The film Blue Moon premiered at the London film festival; it is out on the 17th of October in the USA, the 14th of November in the Britain and on January 29 in the land down under.
