I'm Not There

I'm only passingly familiar with Bob Dylan. I know a decent amount of his music and very little about his life. And yet Todd Haynes' film I'm Not There still intrigued me. Of course the film isn't a biopic. Instead it is "inspired" by the many lives and personalities of Bob Dylan. So instead of one traditional and likely boring single narrative, we are witness to six unconnected stories/vignettes that treat aspects of Bob Dylan's personality.

There is a young kid (Marcus Carl Franklin) who calls himself "Woody Guthrie" and travels the rails singing old folk songs. There is Robbie Clark (Heath Ledger) an actor whose break out role was playing a Dylan type folk star. Ben Whishaw plays Arthur Rimbaud who is being interviewed. Cate Blanchett plays Jude Quinn a folk singer who angers his fans when he starts using an electric guitar. Richard Gere becomes Billy the Kid who faces Pat Garrett years after their supposed fateful encounter. Finally Christian Bale plays Jack Rollins a gifted folk singer who gives it up for the life of a pastor.

The stories are inter-cut occasionally leaving one story to follow for a while another one. This leaves a very fractured film that mostly works and even when it isn't totally working, still leaves you pretty impressed. First and foremost is that the film is quite beautiful to look at and the performances are all very good. There is of course the much talked about and award whispers for Blanchett as Jude Quinn. And none of this talk is without warrant.

But Blanchett is not the only one who shines in this bizarre little film. Heath Ledger's Robbie Clark has a particularly compelling story. I confess in the end that the film didn't fully keep my interest. I found the Billy the Kid story a bit flat and wasn't sure what was going on half the time Ben Whishaw was on screen. But in the end the performances and visuals hold enough of a movie together to keep you interested. And you have to appreciate the attempt to tell a biopic without the standard boring old cliches.