Memorable, crazy movie

I wanted to like it more than I actually did... But much of the humor totally escaped me and I walked out only mildly impressed.

A great movie, one of the best of this year. There was a bit of confusion at one point in the plot, but nothing serious.

Each character in this movie — down to the smallest one — is an individual rather than a type, prone to spontaneous changes of mood and sometimes amusing outbursts of pettiness or ill humor.

As a disclaimer, I think it is important to say that I do not know a whole lot about Bob Dylan. I thought I knew enough when I started the film, and quickly learned I was wrong. "I'm Not There" excels as a work of art, and an anti-biopic – though it can be very enigmatic at times. The story tends to be hard to follow, as it jumps between characters and aspects of Dylan's work. This is most likely done on purpose, but it makes the narrative difficult to understand. This film is not one that allows the audience to sit back, an relax as they watch. It requires an attentive eye, and allows for an ambiguous definition, as the viewer must come to their own conclusion. After the movie has ended, you have to take the pieces of evidence given, much like pieces of a mosaic, and put them together yourself. In creating your own picture, you may find yourself missing a piece, not liking what you see, or wondering if you've put them together correctly. But that too is purposeful.

Todd Haynes has delivered his best film to date about the multiple facets of living legend musician, poet, and writer, Bob Dylan. While Dylan has been awarded the Kennedy Center Honors, this film is quite a tribute to the man's legacy and his role forever in the world and not just America. For most of us, Bob Dylan is a songwriter and musician but also philosopher, poet, and activist. His music inspired people and still does. The film is a mixture of six characters including an African American child Marcus Carl Franklin who played Woody in the 1950s. There is Cate Blanchett's well-deserved Oscar nomination for supporting actress as Jude Quinn in the mid-60s in England where the song, "Mr. Jones," comes into play. Bruce Greenwood played the inspirational role of a British television journalist. There is Richard Gere in the 1800s small town with his dog, Henry. There is Ben Whishaw who is not used enough in the film. Of course, the late Heath Ledger played a significant role opposite French actress, Charlotte Gainsbourg. Michelle Williams played Coco, an actress, as well. This film is perfect casting. The writing might need more tweaking and the ending was confusing but the originality is what I'll take away from it. This film is a perfect tribute to Bob Dylan.

Unless you know something about the subject of this biography, you're bound to be confused by "I'm Not There". It is "inspired by the music & many lives of Bob Dylan." For the unenlightened, Mr. Dylan was famous, long ago ("for playing electric violins on desolation row"). The film, by writer/director Todd Haynes is excellent, but inaccessible. And, strangely, if you know anything about the subject, you're going to learn approximately nothing knew. To help navigate, there were four main Dylans… FIRST and famed-mostly, Dylan was a "Rock Star". This period is played out by Cate Blanchett as "Jude Quinn". This character sports a fictitious name, but like much of the movie, comes (not from McCartney's "Jude" but) obviously from Dylan's oeuvre - the Christian "Jude" and "Quinn the Eskimo". This Dylan has the clearest Beginning and End points of any. He was "born" when startling his folk audience by "going electric" (guitar) and "dies" in a motorcycle accident at the peak of his fame.SECOND most famous, and highly influential, Dylan was the "Folk Singer" replaced by the above. Here, it's Christian Bale as "Jack Rollins". This Dylan was quite popular on his own, but was much "covered" by other folk artists and rock bands. During this time, Dylan was more like a very big cult, and his songs were more widely heard when other people made hit records from them. The songs were more Political (protest) during this time, getting vague later (with exceptions, like "Hurricane").THIRD time around for Dylan was his "Cowboy" persona, essayed herein by Richard Gere and named "Billy the Kid" after the outlaw anti-hero Dylan play-acted. This was the Dylan emerging after the motorcycle accident. Dylan left a bunch of unreleased tracks (known as "The Basement Tapes") and "reinvented" himself as a more countrified mellow rocker (listen to "Lay Lady Lay"). Here, the "stages" of Dylan's art become more blurred as he no longer commanded the attention he did earlier.FOURTH biggest change, after a long run without defining boundaries, was the "Born Again" or "Christian" Dylan. This startled some people, but (as the film points out) it shouldn't have been unexpected. In fact, the "Fame"/"Drugs"/"Jesus" continuum is very common among music stars, as anyone watching MTV's 1990s biographies could plainly see. For this film, Mr. Bale (uniquely) plays two Dylan incarnations, revising his earlier "Folk Singer" character "Jack Rollins" to become "Pastor John". BUT, that's not all. There are three less public parts of the quadraphonic Dylan covered by Mr. Haynes… FIRST is Dylan's mysterious boyhood masquerade as "Woody Guthrie" played by Marcus Carl Franklin. He is the kid on the train, sporting the Fascist-Killing-Guitar-in-the-West. Of course, Woody Guthrie was a real person, and he had a tremendous influence on Dylan. While cute and well done, this section is not revelatory, which could be why the film project had "the real" Bob Dylan's blessing. The real Dylan, who appears briefly near the end, did not appreciate biographers peeking into his personal history.SECOND is Dylan "The Poet" named "Arthur Rimbaud" and played by Ben Whishaw. Like the above, but more of a conglomerate, the character is a real French poet named Arthur Rimbaud who influenced Dylan (and many other rock stars). The Dylans are presented in sort of an overlapping chronological order - which may not make sense to the uninitiated - but this one is used more like a muse for the others, accentuating Dylan's reputation as a true "Tarantula" of a Poet, even without the music.THIRD and perhaps most esoteric is Dylan "The Actor" played by Heath Ledger as "Robbie Clark". Dylan did do some movies. Mortals do not forgive. Even an epic focusing in his relationship with a certain sad-eyed of the lowlands. Rather than show Dylan acting in a movie, this "Actor" section perversely shows the more camera-shy Dylan. It seems highly fictitious, but you've got to appreciate "Dylan" telling what looks like "Patti Smith", "chicks can never be poets." (!) And, "I Want You" is a terrific vignette. In sum, "I'm Not There" is an excellent film for obvious believers, with minus zero insight into its subject. Bobby Zimmerman could hardly disapprove. By the way, the fact that the vinyl "Stuck Inside of Mobile with the…" was amusingly continued in the "Blonde on Blonde" gate-fold jacket as "…Memphis Blues Again" is no excuse to edit the song. And, changing the lyric, "Here is your 'throat' back, thanks for the loan..." to "Here is your 'mouth' back, thanks for the loan..." really sucks. Moreover, it's sacrilege.******* I'm Not There (9/3/07) Todd Haynes ~ Christian Bale, Cate Blanchett, Heath Ledger, Richard Gere

This was an audacious concept. Having Bob Dylan portrayed by half a dozen different actors assuming fictionalized personas. As if the real Bob Dylan wasn't full enough of terminal contradictions. But as the producers of this boring, pretentious mess could only paraphrase and not quote directly from any documented reality (what is reality?) except Dylan's songs, of course, the film looses itself in the meanders of absolute arbitrariness and sundry parallel universes in spite of the best efforts of some worthy actors and talents. I lived through the sixties and Dylan's rise to celebrity and I didn't recognize anything of my perceptions of him in this film, probably because either the film or Dylan himself (who knows, right?) is more preoccupied by the flotsam and jetsam of terminal hype, the fame game and/or celebrity rehab scenarios to actually care what a man's music is supposed to mean (if anything). If you ever saw anything worthy in Dylan's music, you'll think twice about his talent after seeing this film. If you always thought he was a fake and a flake, your opinion will not be seriously challenged by this delirious and wasteful Actors' Studio job-creating program.