I’m Not There (2007)
January 24th, 2008
If you are thinking of going to see this movie, you had better really like Bob Dylan. And not only that, you had better own all of his records and have spent a lot of sleepless drunk and stoned nights and mornings trying to figure out what he meant by it all.
That’s me. I loved this movie. I didn’t understand all of it, so I’ll probably watch it a few more times. No problem! I can hardly wait.
Sometimes it’s fun to try and figure out who is supposed to be who, like the fact that Julianne Moore’s character is supposed to be Joan Baez. But most of the time I think it’s better to think of the records represented by each segment and each character. Or else just relax and accept that every character is another side of Bob Dylan.
I like all the characters. It’s especially sly and tricky that the made-up early years of carnivals and riding the rods and trying to be Woody Guthrie are represented by a young black boy. And Christian Bale is very good as the earnest, protesty Greenwich Village Dylan.
I like them all, but the overwhelming genius of the whole endeavour is Cate Blanchett as the mid-sixties Dylan, the druggy electric mystery tramp of Highway 61 Revisited and Blonde on Blonde. She’s so great it hurts to watch her. What an actor she is, and what a brilliant casting coup!
It’s shocking that the recently deceased Heath Ledger is in it. He plays a character who I understand as the mundane, everyday Dylan - married/divorced guy, occasional jerk - the Dylan of Blood on the Tracks and Desire. He is presented as a character who plays Dylan in a movie, but I think it’s the movie of real life, in a reversal of the obvious that is typical of this movie.
It’s pointless to try and review it. It’s very hard core. You know if you’re going to like it or not. If not, don’t go! You won’t understand it and you’ll hate it.
But I loved it.
