I'm Not There

I watched this " inspired by the many lives of Bob Dylan " movie last week. The movie is ambitious in the extreme as written and directed by Todd Haynes. It is not a movie that tells a linear story. It does not actually even mention Dylan, what it does instead is create six different characters that reflect different times in Dylan's life.

The cast is strong and the movie is actually very very strong. Again if you are looking for a biography of Bob Dylan this is not it. If you are knowledgeable about some of the history of Bob Dylan and would like to see an artistic viewpoint of some of the noted times in his life you might well enjoy this movie.

In the movie we see Bob as the young boy infatuated with Woody Guthrie, we see an experience with members of the media that seems to mirror his song " The Ballad of A Thin Man." The major roles in the movie are of a character called Jack Rollins and later Pastor Jack both played by Christian Bale. These characters portray Dylan's early sixties acouistic phase as well as his late seventies, early eighties Jesus phase.

The most talked about performance in the film however is easily that of Cate Blanchett as the 1965 Bob Dylan. This is the Dylan that rejected folk singing, questioned how much any one person could change the world and was called a traitor by a great many of his fans. The movie depicts a character named Quinn, played by Blanchett as a snarly, in your face, what did you want from me flair that jumps off the screen. We see depictions of the famous Newport News festival as well as the Judas incident at The Royal Albert Hall.

The movie is more than its vignettes and in fact not all work. The section of the movie that relates to Billy the Kid and stars Richard Gere does not work and seems tired before it even starts. The movie could do much better without it.

In addition to Bale, Gere, and Blanchett the movie also stars Heath Ledger, Bruce Greenwood, and an actress we are hearing more about recently Charlotte Gainsbourg. She is lovely in the role and as a composite character based on perhaps mostly Suzy Rufalo from the early sixties she is effervescent.

The movie is very ambitious. If you do not know some of the Dylan legend it might not make sense. It should not be taken as history but as interpretation. In that vein it succeeds very well.