Ethan Hawke stars as fading lyricist in melancholic ‘Blue Moon’
In the wistful, elegiac “Blue Moon,” the celebrated lyricist, Lorenz Hart (Ethan Hawke), is sitting in Sardi’s delivering a series of absorbing and occasionally amusing monologues. As he slowly gets drunk (despite claiming he is on the wagon), he quotes from “Casablanca,” babbles about enchantment, and even discusses the merits of a half-erect penis. He is … Read More
Mark
0
1
In the wistful, elegiac “Blue Moon,” the celebrated lyricist, Lorenz Hart (Ethan Hawke), is sitting in Sardi’s delivering a series of absorbing and occasionally amusing monologues. As he slowly gets drunk (despite claiming he is on the wagon), he quotes from “Casablanca,” babbles about enchantment, and even discusses the merits of a half-erect penis. He is candid, witty, and wry, but when he starts to talk about “Oklahoma!,” the new musical by his former collaborator Richard Rodgers (Andrew Scott), he becomes vitriolic.
Hart is bitter that Rodgers is working with a new lyricist, Oscar Hammerstein II (Samuel Delaney), because Rodgers has never worked with anyone other than Hart — until now. And while Hart walked out of the “cornpone” “Oklahoma!” early, he knows the show, which is having its premiere that evening, is going to be a smash hit. However, Hart claims the “inoffensive” nature of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s musical is most offensive to him.
When he talks about pandering to audiences, Hart’s attitude is probably a bushel of sour grapes. His glory days are certainly behind him; the film is set seven months before Hart’s death from pneumonia. What make “Blue Moon” and Hart’s fading star so interesting is that it captures a specific moment in time where Hart is forced to examine his own self-worth (or lack thereof).
Hart’s professional despair extends to his personal life. A closeted homosexual — it is an open secret that “women are not his primary interest” — he is hoping that Elizabeth Weiland (Margaret Qualley), a 20-year-old Yale student, will confirm that she has the same “irrational admiration” for him that he has for her. But he also flirts with a handsome young man he calls Sven (Giles Surridge), inviting him over to a party Hart is hosting later that night.
“Blue Moon” is set almost entirely at Sardi’s where Hart regales a small audience that includes Eddie (Bobby Cannavale), the bartender, Morty Rifkin (Jonah Lees), the pianist, and E.B. “Andy” White (Patrick Kennedy), the writer. He performs for them, asking Eddie, “How can so much pleasure be pressed into so small a container?” (about a shot of liquor he downs, or bantering with White). Hart inspires the writer by recounting a story about catching and releasing a little mouse he calls Stuart. (White later wrote “Stuart Little.”)
But the real performance begins when Rodgers arrives to receive his reviews. Hart phonily praises his former collaborator, who sees through his sycophantism. When Rodgers gracefully offers Hart the chance to revive their old hit, “A Connecticut Yankee,” with four to five new songs, Hart pivots and pitches some idea he has about Marco Polo. It is an awkward moment, but their exchanges provide this hangout film with some real drama. Shrewdly, Rodgers plays it cool even though he can smell Hart’s flop sweat permeating out from under the top notes of alcohol.
Hawke’s showboating (read: Oscar-baiting) performance is strongest in these scenes, but he is also excellent when holing up in the cloakroom with Elizabeth. She treats Hart like her gay bestie but also manages his fragile emotions and her ambitions — she wants to meet Rodgers — with care. Hawke makes his character’s vulnerability palpable here, and he engenders pity like a despondent and drunk gay uncle. The actor leans into Hart’s pathos here, and later when he literally hits bottom getting down on the floor to retrieve a deck of cards he dropped. Hart may be delusional if he thinks that he can convince Rodgers to collaborate again, or make Elizabeth love him in the way he desires, but his ego insists he has a chance with either, or both, and Hawke commits fully, recklessly, and relentlessly to Hart’s doomed hopefulness. That said, while he is entertaining holding court, in his worst moments, Hawke sounds like he is mimicking John Malkovich in both his louche cadence and line delivery.
The rest of the cast — Canavale, Scott, and Kennedy — perform well by downplaying, although Qualley steals her scenes with her blond mane, tight dress, and bravado.
“Blue Moon” is obviously stagey, but director Richard Linklater, working from a screenplay by Robert Kaplow that is based on Hart’s letters, never lets the pacing flag. The camera moves nimbly around the rooms and features sweet moments like a rendition of “Over There,” or a few bars from “As Time Goes By” during the “Casablanca” reference. Of course, there is also plenty of Rodgers and Hart’s music. The film’s title song — which was Hart’s biggest hit and one he expresses some disdain towards — is performed, along with snippets from classics, including “Bewitched,” “My Funny Valentine,” and “Manhattan,” among others.
The music is lovely, and it provides a nice respite from all the talk and melancholy. However, by the end of “Blue Moon,” viewers may not be as emotionally spent as Hart is after his long, wearying night.
“Blue Moon” | Directed by Richard Linklater | Opening October 17 at the Angelika Film Center and the AMC Lincoln Square 13 | Distributed by Sony Pictures Classics
