Review of I'm Not There (2007) by Filipeneto — 12 Jun 2021

Let's start at the beginning: I'm not a fan of Bob Dylan, nor have I ever wasted much time listening to his music. Despite this, I recognize the impact he had on music and the strength of many of his songs, later used and visited by other musicians. So much of this movie tells me very little. Still, I decided to see him, convinced by the number of notables involved.

What this film does is basically tell stories alluding to the singer's life, personifying in fictional characters several aspects of his life and career. It's an innovative, brilliant idea, but I think it was poorly executed: the film is excessively long and slow, and if I didn't know the subject and had read something about the film beforehand, I would have a hard time understanding the narrative. This is intensified by the temporal and spatial leaps in the plot, which make it even more difficult to understand. Some plot segments didn't turn out as interesting or well-developed either.

The cast is quite good, particularly Cate Blanchett. She gives us the best performance in the movie, and it's worth seeing the movie just to see how she untangles herself from the role in her hands. Christian Bale and Heath Ledger are also very good and Marcus Carl Franklin was able to surprise, in a work more mature than his age would suggest. Julianne Moore also looked pretty good to me, but she has little to add. Less interesting, the works of Richard Gere, Ben Whishaw and Charlotte Gainsbourg seem too raw and undeveloped. The rest, I confess, did not attract my attention in the least.

Technically, the movie is a mess. Editing and editing seem lost in a maze of script pieces. The cinematography is excellent, as are the sets and different costumes used. There is no doubt that an effort was made to make the film artistically beautiful, and that was a very successful effort. The soundtrack features several Dylan songs, something that seems mandatory since the film was about him.