Review of I'm Not There (2007) by Chads. — 05 Jan 2008

Any discussion of "I'm Not There" has to begin with Cate Blanchett, who gets everything right: voice, body language, attitude, and most impressively, this awesome Aussie nails down Bob Dylan's aura.

Her performance goes way beyond male impersonation. This is not a gender-bender freakshow. "I'm Not There" could've stopped there and receive its kudos, but like the singer-songwriter himself, this wildly ambitious film is alternately arresting, inpenetrable, and off-the-rails mad.

"I'm Not There" recreates Sam Peckinpah's "Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid" with Richard Gere(playing Dylan as Billy the Kid), even though Kris Kristofferson(who narrates "I'm Not There") played the infamous gunslinger in the original.

In one amazing scene, Gere stares into the wilderness, and is greeted by a Vietnam War-montage, which stares right back at him, seemingly at his conscience, creating a juxtaposition between the apolitical nature of the film and the political context in which "Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid" was released; 1973, when the war still raged on.

The filmmaker crosscuts the Gere's section with the Robbie Clark(Heath Ledger) storyline as a way to show how Dylan is multi-layered and hide what's really on his mind. Clark is an actor who starred in a biopic about Dylan(Dylan as Jack Rollins, played by Christian Bale), but Billy the Kid is not even "real".

Jude Quinn(Blanchett), the aloof version of Dylan we're most familiar with isn't going to offer up his political views. Dylan reveals his political conscience not as a folk singer, but as a folk hero(Billy the Kid, arguably, is noted by some as one), as he was shooting the Peckinpah film.

1973 is also the year when Dylan found God. His religious turn, in retrospect, seemed so bizarre and unexpected, you're reminded of "Being John Malkovich" when Malkovich announced to the world that he was retiring from the acting world to become a puppeteer.

"I'm Not There" has a jagged beauty, a voluptuous imagination, and instills the adventurous moviegoer with a feeling of bliss.