Review of I'm Not There (2007) by Emily C — 27 Oct 2009

I'm Not There is a film that isn't entirely "there." This movie isn't horribly bad or some kind of failed attempt, but it never reaches beyond interesting take on someones life.

For starters, instead of making a Biographical film on Bob Dylan, director Todd Haynes decided it would be clever to take fictionalized accounts of Dylan's life and create an interwoven drama. While I will admit that this is clever, it never really creates a cohesive story for the film.

If this were directed as an actual Bio-pic, then you could simply have people talking about what each images means and move onto the fiction. Instead, there are 6 actors portraying Dylan at different points in his life, but all at the same time. This leads to confusion, no real gripping points of drama within each persons life and sometimes just unnecessary padding.

Some characters are brought in the first hour of the film, only to be excluded for 45 minutes. Then they are shown for a few more minutes, only to be left for the ending. And like I said earlier, no one character even has a story of what is happening, it just goes something like, "He was brave in his youth, writing those songs. Now he has changed his ways and become a preacher." Well, how did that happen? When did it happen?

That point aside, what works really well in this film are the actors. Regardless if you are given nothing to hold onto, the actors get Dylan's mannerisms and persona down. Cate Blanchett is particularly amazing and I'm extremely surprised that a female was able to capture Dylan better than any of the male actors in the film.

Ledger gives a pretty good performance, but he sounds too much like himself. The same goes for Bale. Ben Whishaw has the Dylan voice down, but he never gets much to do in the film other than quote some interview that Dylan gave. Richard Gere is probably the weakest of the Dylan portrayals, but his story also has next to nothing in terms of length or relevance. Marcus Carl Franklin is pretty good, but his story is more of a fable than anything (though it is based off of Dylan's fabled backstory, so I guess that makes sense).

What else comes out of his faux-documentary is some tidbits of Dylan's life. While it definitely is cool to learn how some of his wrongs were written to spite people (particularly an interviewer), it really just makes you wonder why this film wasn't a straight up Biopic.

And that's the problem with I'm Not There, it's not a documentary, but it's also not a story. You get two halves of two different types of movie thrown together. I mean, I'll admit the visuals are arresting at times and the soundtrack is good, but what else can you latch onto? If only this film went deeper into the Dylan mythos or possibly created a coherent story, but alas, that is not to be. Still, check this out if you are interested in Dylan in the slightest. There is enough revealing things in here to captivate you through one viewing.