Ethan Hawke is so easy on camera, you forget he’s acting. This is both good and bad. The good is that he’s almost always a likable protagonist by just being himself. The bad is he never gets credit for actually acting. Today, he is acting. Really, really, really-and-truly acting.
In a performance as un-Ethan Hawke like as any you’ll ever see, Ethan turns into Lorenz Hart, the lyricist brushed aside by Richard Rodgers (Andrew Scott) in favor of Oscar Hammerstein.
You’ve heard of Rodgers and Hammerstein, yes? Well, Rodgers and Hart predated the former and had plenty of hits on their own. And yet, Lorenz Hart is a relative unknown in the history of musical theater, a little because he wasn’t Oscar Hammerstein, and a lot because of his off-putting personality (if this film is to be believed). Ethan Hawke plays Lorenz Hart as a romantically insecure opinionated chatterbox. He says a lot of things in this film. This is among the more verbose roles in film history. It makes sense; Lorenz Hart is a writer and all. What doesn’t happen a lot in this film is human connection, as Hart’s off-putting neediness seems to undermine his own success.
The film opens with Hart’s death, age 47 in a Manhattan alleyway. Then the film retreats some months to show the man was before he hit rock bottom. Almost all of the film takes place in a bar near to where Oklahoma! Has just debuted on Broadway. This is 1943, so Casablanca talk dominates the early “action,” what with being the best written piece of art in the era. The 47-year-old Hart, a lonely bisexual artist, arrives before the wave of Oklahoma! participants and well-wishers to talk about himself with an audience of the bartender (Bobby Cannavale), the pianist, and E.B. White. Hart is smitten with a 20-year-old college student (Margaret Qualley), who -despite her age- seems to have found herself surrounded by the best names Broadway has to offer at the time.
Elizabeth (Qualley) and Rodgers will arrive later. Both will find themselves looking to exit conversation with Hart. Has Hart come to propose to Elizabeth
or reunite with Rodgers or just make fun of Oklahoma!? Perhaps all three. We may never know as Hart doesn’t seem to let the rest of the screenplay get a word in edgewise. And, gee, how could the beautiful Elizabeth NOT be taken with a self-pitying 47-year-old with a terrible combover hiding and unmistakable fake-skin-covered widow’s peak.
Seriously, film, either make Hawke commit to the role by shaving his head or get a better makeup artist.
Blue Moon, titled after Hart’s most memorable lyrics -ones he hated, btw- feels like a play. And a play that doesn’t really go anywhere at that. For the film is absolutely dominated by a man who wants and needs adoration but feels he isn’t worthy of it all the same. This is a complex role, and one I wished I enjoyed more because Hawke is clearly acting his ass off like he’s never acted before. Part of me wishes I truly hated Lorenz Hart so that I could hate the film, but I respect Hart for what he added to the world of music and the biggest problem with Hart is that he kinda hates himself already. The latter nullifies any hatred I might have; what’s the point? And we know history is bound the erase Hart as well, which does make me feel for him. In 20 years, he wrote over 1,000 songs with Richard Rodgers, but Rodgers’ best work clearly followed the pairing with Oscar Hammerstein. Even here in Richard Linklater’s love letter to a forgotten Broadway hero, odds are you’ll be wishing the film went more into the history of Rodgers & Hammerstein than Rodgers & Hart.
There once was a lyricist named Hart
Broadway is where he perfected his art
Yet when history called
The man was appalled
For his success merited just an understudy part
Rated R, 100 Minutes
Director: Richard Linklater
Writer: Robert Kaplow
Genre: Forgotten celebs
Type of being most likely to enjoy this film: Lorenz Hart apologists
Type of being least likely to enjoy this film: People who hate name-droppers
