Breaking up from the more famous collaborator in a entertainment duo is a dangerous business. Comedian Larry David did it. So did Andrew Ridgeley. Now, this witty and deeply sorrowful intimate film from writer Robert Kaplow and filmmaker Richard Linklater narrates the all but unbearable story of musical theater lyricist the lyricist Lorenz Hart shortly following his breakup from composer Richard Rodgers. His role is portrayed with theatrical excellence, an unspeakable combover and artificial shortness by actor Ethan Hawke, who is often digitally reduced in height – but is also sometimes recorded placed in an unseen pit to stare up wistfully at heightened personas, confronting Hart's height issue as actor José Ferrer in the past acted the petite Toulouse-Lautrec.
Multifaceted Role and Motifs
Hawke gets big, world-weary laughs with Hart's humorous takes on the subtle queer themes of the classic Casablanca and the cheesily upbeat musical he’s just been to see, with all the rope-spinning ranch hands; he acidly calls it Okla-homo. The sexuality of Lorenz Hart is multifaceted: this movie skillfully juxtaposes his gayness with the non-queer character invented for him in the 1948 musical Words and Music (with Mickey Rooney acting as Hart); it cleverly extrapolates a kind of dual attraction from Hart's correspondence to his protege: youthful Yale attendee and budding theater artist Elizabeth Weiland, acted in this movie with uninhibited maidenly charm by Margaret Qualley.
Being a member of the famous New York theater composing duo with the composer Rodgers, Lorenz Hart was in charge of matchless numbers like the song The Lady Is a Tramp, Manhattan, the beloved My Funny Valentine and of course Blue Moon. But annoyed at Hart’s alcoholism, unreliability and gloomy fits, Richard Rodgers ended their partnership and partnered with Oscar Hammerstein II to compose the musical Oklahoma! and then a multitude of stage and screen smashes.
Sentimental Layers
The film imagines the deeply depressed Lorenz Hart in the show Oklahoma!'s opening night Manhattan spectators in 1943, looking on with jealous anguish as the show proceeds, despising its insipid emotionality, hating the exclamation point at the end of the title, but heartsinkingly aware of how extremely potent it is. He understands a hit when he views it – and feels himself descending into defeat.
Even before the interval, Hart sadly slips away and makes his way to the tavern at Sardi’s where the rest of the film occurs, and anticipates the (certainly) victorious Oklahoma! cast to show up for their following-event gathering. He realizes it is his entertainment obligation to congratulate Rodgers, to act as if things are fine. With suave restraint, Andrew Scott plays Rodgers, clearly embarrassed at what each understands is the lyricist's shame; he gives a pacifier to his self-esteem in the appearance of a short-term gig creating additional tunes for their ongoing performance A Connecticut Yankee, which simply intensifies the pain.
- The performer Bobby Cannavale plays the barman who in conventional manner attends empathetically to Hart’s arias of bitter despondency
- The thespian Patrick Kennedy plays author EB White, to whom Lorenz Hart accidentally gives the notion for his kids' story Stuart Little
- Margaret Qualley acts as Weiland, the impossibly gorgeous Yale student with whom the movie conceives Hart to be complicatedly and self-harmingly in affection
Hart has earlier been rejected by Rodgers. Surely the universe can’t be so cruel as to have him dumped by Weiland as well? But Margaret Qualley mercilessly depicts a youthful female who wishes Hart to be the laughing, platonic friend to whom she can confide her exploits with boys – as well of course the theater industry influencer who can promote her occupation.
Acting Excellence
Hawke shows that Hart partly takes voyeuristic pleasure in learning of these boys but he is also authentically, mournfully enamored with Weiland and the film reveals to us an aspect seldom addressed in movies about the domain of theater music or the movies: the awful convergence between professional and romantic failure. Yet at a certain point, Lorenz Hart is rebelliously conscious that what he has accomplished will endure. It’s a terrific performance from Ethan Hawke. This may turn into a stage musical – but who would create the songs?
Blue Moon premiered at the London movie festival; it is released on October 17 in the United States, 14 November in the United Kingdom and on January 29 in Australia.
