There's a moment early in Blue Moon when Lorenz Hart orders another drink at Sardi's and you watch the bartender's face do a small calculation. Not judgment, exactly. The process follows the same pattern as an accountant who attempts to link entries in his ledger although he knows the entries will never match. Bobby Cannavale acts as Eddie in the film while his character continues to serve throughout the story. His performance becomes devastating because he maintains his service throughout the entire story.
Keeps listening. The system maintains its support for someone who must experience the entire impact of his previous choices.
Richard Linklater's film unfolds almost entirely in that bar on the night of March 31, 1943, hours after Oklahoma!premieres to the kind of reviews that make careers. The system uses Hart's method to check your present circumstances. His longtime collaborator Richard Rodgers has moved on to Oscar Hammerstein, and Hart is left nursing whiskey and whatever dignity he can manufacture from spite. "I don't like sincerity on stage," he snaps about the show he hasn't seen. "It's indecent."
Ethan Hawke portrays Hart through his character who mistakes his intellectual superiority for his most important asset. He maintains his position as the center of attention although his value has dropped dramatically because he continues to use his remaining influence. Every cutting remark and every dazzling observation functions as an invoice which he sends to the universe. Look at the total amount of money I have right now. The universe, represented here by Andrew Scott's wearily patient Rodgers, has already closed the books.
The production design of the film impressed me the most. The restaurant Sardi's functions as a safeguard which creates a dangerous situation because it makes men believe the outside world has not changed because their familiar visitors keep coming with their typical jokes. The director Linklater together with cinematographer Shane F. Kelly discover hidden areas which add depth to the otherwise unchanging environment but the attempted size reduction of Hawke through forced perspective becomes a visual distraction. I spent most of my time studying the views from different locations instead of actually using the spaces.
The movie presents an unemotional approach to show how artists experience their creative abilities fade away. Hart receives treatment as a regular person instead of being portrayed as a tortured genius or used as a warning to others. The market no longer needs his specific abilities which made him successful in his previous work. The Broadway stage received emotional authenticity from Rodgers and Hammerstein but Hart presented his audience with witty sophisticated and melancholic content. The economy shifted. He didn't.
Margaret Qualley appears as Elizabeth, a young student Hart convinces himself he might rescue or be rescued by. Their scenes together have the queasy quality of a negotiation where one party doesn't know they're negotiating. She displays herself as a lively and attractive person who actively wants to listen to his life experiences. He describes interest in a way which does not accurately represent its true essence. The film handles his ambiguous sexuality with enough care not to turn it into thesis, though I'm not sure what Qualley's given to work with amounts to a full character.
The script written by Robert Kaplow includes some forced period-specific details. EB White appears in the story while he works on his upcoming book Stuart Little before he meets a young Stephen Sondheim in a situation that seems like it belongs in a Wikipedia entry instead of being a meaningful plot point. The film gains its life when Linklater allows his actors to speak naturally while they move around each other with their accumulated past conflicts and enduring love for one another. Scott and Hawke appear in a final scene which shows authentic destruction through their silent actions.
Rodgers offers Hart a small professional kindness, and you understand immediately it's both genuine and insufficient. A person who wants to seem more important than others performs this action to achieve that feeling without actually gaining any size advantage.
The implementation of systems which duplicate elements continues to occupy my thoughts. The true value of a word exceeds its dictionary definition. Businesses use this process to get rid of their nonessential assets. How talent is never enough if the talent isn't what's being bought. Hart wrote some of the most sophisticated lyrics American theater has produced, and by 1943 sophistication was out of season. The cruelty exists because he did not succeed. He achieved success in an activity which had lost its importance.
The movie becomes too forceful during its final sections because it shows Hart experiencing an increasing number of degrading situations which shift from documentary-style observation into a clear statement. Linklater seems to want us certain that our charismatic hero is doomed, which rather undercuts the tragedy. We knew. That's why we came.
The audience remembers his acting performance from that time because of his work in that film. Hart stands before the bar mirror to gaze at his reflection after he becomes intoxicated and finds himself alone. No words. The person maintains their position to check which personal belongings remain in the area. The economy of it.