Review of I'm Not There (2007) by Parker M — 05 Dec 2009

A bold, batshit film, and a perfect way to illustrate a man's life while barely discussing it at all. I don't know anything about Bob Dylan, but seeing all of these unusual stories, and unable to discern what was fact and what was Todd Haynes' imagination, I really felt like I understood the image that Dylan tries to portray and all of its connotations.

What I liked most about I'm Not There was its unconventional portrayal of a person trying to remain enigmatic, and ultimately failing, in the face of enormous fame. Cate Blanchett's section, where she channels a main who deliberately presents himself as obtusely and infuriatingly as possible, reinforces this theme especially well.

Even better is how well it folds into Heath Ledger's chapter, where we get a portrait of a man clearly drunk on his own fame and admittedly unique talents, a bullish intellectual with a clear-headed foil near him to see how wrong he truly is (Charlotte Gainsbourg, my 2009 MVP and giving a surprisingly stunning performance here).

In fact, all of the sections of the film are intertwined in creative and subtle ways, creating not so much a linear biography, but an imagined cross-section that attempts to delve into a mysterious brain.

This is the movie La Vie En Rose wishes it could be. The cast is uniformly on-point here, although some parts of the movie don't quite work as well as others. It may be my disdain for Richard Gere speaking, but the end of the film just doesn't do it for me, despite the nihilism and seclusion generally fitting well with everything that follows in this fantasy parade.

I think this is a great experiment that anyone could get on board with, provided they have the patience to think about WHY it has been assembled; it's, more than a lot of movies, like a puzzle, a collection of totally senseless pieces coming together in unusual ways to form a coherent composite.

Recommended for anyone, but especially to Dylan fans.