Breaking up from the better-known partner in a entertainment double act is a risky business. Comedian Larry David went through it. Likewise Andrew Ridgeley. Presently, this witty and profoundly melancholic intimate film from scriptwriter the writer Robert Kaplow and helmer the director Richard Linklater recounts the all but unbearable tale of Broadway lyricist the lyricist Lorenz Hart right after his breakup from Richard Rodgers. The character is acted with theatrical excellence, an notable toupee and artificial shortness by actor Ethan Hawke, who is often technologically minimized in size – but is also sometimes filmed standing in an unseen pit to stare up wistfully at taller characters, confronting the lyricist's stature problem as actor José Ferrer in the past acted the diminutive Toulouse-Lautrec.
Complex Character and Themes
Hawke earns large, cynical chuckles with Hart's humorous takes on the subtle queer themes of the classic Casablanca and the excessively cheerful theater production he’s just been to see, with all the lariat-wielding cowhands; he bitingly labels it Okla-gay. The sexuality of Hart is complex: this picture skillfully juxtaposes his queer identity with the heterosexual image fabricated for him in the 1948 theater piece Words and Music (with actor Mickey Rooney acting as Lorenz Hart); it cleverly extrapolates a kind of bisexual tendency from the lyricist's writings to his protege: college student at Yale and would-be stage designer the character Elizabeth Weiland, portrayed in this film with carefree youthful femininity by the performer Margaret Qualley.
As part of the legendary Broadway songwriting team with musician Richard Rodgers, Lorenz Hart was responsible for incomparable songs like the classic The Lady Is a Tramp, Manhattan, the beloved My Funny Valentine and of course the titular Blue Moon. But frustrated by Hart's drinking problem, unreliability and melancholic episodes, Richard Rodgers severed ties with him and joined forces with Oscar Hammerstein II to compose Oklahoma! and then a raft of live and cinematic successes.
Sentimental Layers
The film imagines the deeply depressed Hart in the show Oklahoma!'s premiere New York audience in the year 1943, observing with covetous misery as the show proceeds, despising its bland sentimentality, hating the exclamation point at the finish of the heading, but soul-crushingly cognizant of how lethally effective it is. He understands a hit when he views it – and perceives himself sinking into unsuccessfulness.
Even before the break, Lorenz Hart miserably ducks out and heads to the tavern at Sardi’s where the balance of the picture unfolds, and anticipates the (unavoidably) successful Oklahoma! company to appear for their post-show celebration. He realizes it is his showbiz duty to compliment Richard Rodgers, to pretend all is well. With polished control, the performer Andrew Scott acts as Richard Rodgers, evidently ashamed at what they both know is Hart's embarrassment; he gives a pacifier to his ego in the form of a temporary job writing new numbers for their existing show A Connecticut Yankee, which simply intensifies the pain.
- Actor Bobby Cannavale plays the barkeeper who in traditional style attends empathetically to Hart’s arias of acerbic misery
- The thespian Patrick Kennedy acts as author EB White, to whom Lorenz Hart inadvertently provides the idea for his youth literature Stuart Little
- Qualley portrays the character Weiland, the inaccessibly lovely Yale attendee with whom the movie imagines Lorenz Hart to be complexly and self-destructively in adoration
Hart has previously been abandoned by Richard Rodgers. Certainly the world couldn't be that harsh as to get him jilted by Elizabeth Weiland as well? But Margaret Qualley mercilessly depicts a girl who wishes Lorenz Hart to be the chuckling, non-sexual confidant to whom she can reveal her exploits with guys – as well of course the showbiz connection who can advance her profession.
Standout Roles
Hawke demonstrates that Hart partly takes observational satisfaction in hearing about these guys but he is also genuinely, tragically besotted with Elizabeth Weiland and the movie informs us of something rarely touched on in films about the realm of stage musicals or the movies: the terrible overlap between professional and romantic failure. Nevertheless at one stage, Hart is defiantly aware that what he has accomplished will survive. It’s a terrific performance from Hawke. This may turn into a stage musical – but who will write the numbers?
The movie Blue Moon was shown at the London film festival; it is released on 17 October in the USA, November 14 in the Britain and on January 29 in Australia.
