It’s not often that I can say I haven’t got a clue what a movie means and still recommend it strongly. But that’s the case with I’m Not There, the film by writer-director Todd Haynes that takes its inspiration from the music and many lives of Bob Dylan.
Six different actors play six different facets of the musician, and none of those characters is actually called Bob Dylan. Getting the most notice is Cate Blanchett.
As 'Jude Quinn", she takes on the Don’t Look Back phase of Dylan’s life, examining his drug-fuelled tour of Britain and difficult time with a press corp who want to define him.
It’s a risky move, casting a woman in this role, but after you get used to it, Blanchett excels. Hers are the most blistering scenes in the movie.
Elsewhere, we have Heath Ledger, Christian Bale, Richard Gere, Ben Whishart and young African American Marcus Carl Franklin as other angles of Dylan.
There’s also a warm performance from Charlotte Gainsbourg as Dylan’s long-suffering wife, and from Bruce Greenwood as both a chilly British intellectual and as Pat Garrett.
The theme of the movie, stated visually in an early autopsy scene, is that it’s impossible to put Dylan – and by extension, anyone – into a simple category.
Haynes restates the case too often and the movie doesn’t quite justify its 135-minute running time. But given that the six interspersed sequences don’t really have any stories to sustain them, it’s surprising how engaging the movie is. Tremendous cinematography and use of Dylan’s use of music help immeasurably.
Fittingly, this film is exactly like many of Dylan’s songs – it’s compelling, rhythmic and entertaining, even as you struggle to make head or tail of it - I’m Not There rates 3 and ½ stars.
