The Reel Review
On the evening of his former songwriting partner’s 1943 Broadway debut of the blockbuster Oklahoma!, once-famed lyricist Lorenz Hart pines for a comeback and one last shot at love. Ethan Hawke, Andrew Scott, Bobby Cannavale and Margaret Qualley star in this psychological dramedy from director Richard Linklater (Boyhood, Before Sunrise).
Despite being cleverly written with lots of sharp, quick-witted dialogue, Hawke’s exaggerated, over-the-top performance and the single setting – the bar at the iconic Sardi’s restaurant in New York City’s Theater District – is more of a dry stage play geared towards the most hardcore fans of that era’s Broadway musicals. An excellent Andrew Scott (All of Us Strangers) portrays former writing partner Richard Rodgers (of the soon-to-be wildly successful Rodgers & Hammerstein fame) with Qualley (The Substance) as a 20-year-old Yale student on whom the 47-year-old, gay, 4’10 Hart has oddly set his romantic sites. Cannavale is the bartender and Hart’s confidante.
Although the practical effects used to make Hawke look diminutive (over-sized sets and costumes and perspective-altering camera angles) varies from quite good to distractingly not so good, the final act does pick up with a powerful soliloquy from Qualley about human nature, as Hart tragically realizes that his alcoholism has led him to being his own worst enemy in both career and in matters of the heart.
REEL FACTS
• Several famous historical figures appear in the film: Charlotte’s Web author E.B. White, George Roy Hill (who would later become known for his buddy films Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid and The Sting), and future songwriter Stephen Sondheim, who appears as a precocious child.
• In 1943, no man would openly acknowledge being gay in a public place, even if only talking to a bartender. Homosexual acts were criminal in 1943.
• Although set in New York City, Blue Moon was filmed in Dublin, Ireland.
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