Todd Hayne's rambling biopic about the life of Bob Dylan, "I'm Not There", starts with an interesting premise: six different actors, each of them expressing a different aspect of Dylan's psyche. As the film goes on, unfortunately, it begins to ramble, and lasts much, much longer than the audience wished it had. The movie is also hard to follow, since all six of the characters are playing the same historical character, but each character has a different name (none of them are named Bob Dylan). Not to mention, all six of them are made up to look more or less like Dylan.
There are positive sides to the film. Ben Whishaw is great as Arthur Rimbaud, the poetic Dylan. He's young, sarcastic, nihilistic, and surly; a talented, fatalistic brat. Marcus Carl Franklin carries the toughest role in the film, as Woody Guthrie, an eleven-year-old blues prodigy; Franklin's character goes to visit the real Woody Guthrie on the folk hero's deathbed, just as a young Bob Dylan did. Christian Bale is good as Jack Rollins (aka "Pastor Jack"), who covers Dylan's spiritual uncertainty. Kris Kristofferson's narration is put together well with some solid camerawork from Edward Lachman. There's also a dynamite soundtrack consisting of Dylan covers, redone by names like the Millionaire Bashers (a supergroup featuring Sonic Youth stars Lee Ranaldo and Steve Shelley, Wilco guitarist Nels Cline, Television guitarist Tom Verlaine, Dylan bassist Tony Garnier, guitarist Smokey Hormel and keyboardist John Medeski), Sam Bush, Jeff Tweedy, Willie Nelson, Jim James, and Sufjan Stevens; Dylan's own version of the title track is officially released after years of being one of the most highly regarded outtakes of his entire career.
Cate Blanchett (as Jude Quinn/Strung-Out Dylan) and Heath Ledger (as Robbie Clark/Hollywood Dylan) are uneven and ultimately disappointing. Richard Gere's story suffered from the added weight of being nearly completely incomprehensible; as Billy the Kid (Aging Outlaw Dylan), Gere struggles in a freak-show/circus/wild-west town that is being destroyed by Commissioner Pat Garrett. With heavy doses of this crew, the second half of the movie falls apart, and limps toward the end of the film. At 2 hours and 20 minutes, it lasts a solid half-hour too long, and seems to end five or six times in the last half-hour; each time the full theater seemed to prepare to leave, only to settle back into their seats for another few minutes. I found myself doing likewise.
It takes a serious knowledge of Dylan's life to comprehend almost anything in this movie; I have (occasional) Pasty Quail contributor Nate to thank for being able to understand anything at all. A watchable movie for the hardcore Dylan fans; others would do better to stick with Scorsese's "No Direction Home".
Wednesday, January 9, 2008
Movie Review: "I'm Not There"
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5 comments:
here here, brother.
i disagree on a couple of counts. my only two problems with this movie are the length (which you discussed) and the crazy richard gere part, which was kind of hard to grasp. the wierd "fantasy dylan" elements worked a lot better in the marcus carl franklin section, mostly because that kid seemed sharp and charismatic beyond his years.
that being said, the gere scenes did look beautifully surreal and the jim james "goin to acapulco" bit was one of my favorite scenes in the whole film.
you slammed ledger and blanchett. now, heath ledger is a lousy actor. i thought everyone knew this. in this role, he was basically tolerable in one of the harder "personas" to play. i definitely stayed interested in his plotline, and his acting didn't sabotage his scenes. which from me is a pretty big compliment for heath ledger.
i thought blanchett, on the other hand, did a remarkable job, especially considering she was asked to carry so much of the film's weight (and length), she was portraying dylan in his most iconic period, and her casting was, not to put too fine a point on it, incredibly gimmicky. after a shaky beginning, she really started to embody the role admirably, especially in her interplay with the bruce greenwood character.
this is one of those films to me that's really endearing in spite of some serious flaws. and almost all of those flaws are ones of ambition. this is more of a love letter to dylan and the ultimate embrace of the concept of artist fandom than it is an attempt to explicate the details of some mysterious characters life. scorsese's film already does that admirably. haynes is just trying to pay tribute. that labor is really in there, and in this case i think it (mostly) works.
I think you take a fair position here, but I would like to clarify a little bit what I meant about Blanchett. While at times she was the most believable and the most Dylan-esque, she was flat through the middle of the movie, and her portrayal of Quinn's struggle with amphetamines was overwrought and over-acted. Almost as if she was trying to compensate for something...
I thought Heath Ledger's storyline was the worst of the bunch, and he certainly did it no favors.
I really didn't hate the film, and I don't want to come across overly harsh in my criticism; for the most part I enjoyed it, and it had some great moments in it. I guess I'm just a bit disappointed because I really liked the concept, but the execution was, as you admit, seriously flawed.
Just browsing the internet. Very interesting blog. Great read.
"The movie is also hard to follow, since all six of the characters are playing the same historical character, but each character has a different name (none of them are named Bob Dylan). Not to mention, all six of them are made up to look more or less like Dylan."
I'm am worried for you: You couldn't tell Franklin, Whishaw and Gere apart...? And you thought they all looked like Dylan!? ;-)
The Gere portion is actually quite comprehensible if one is familiar with Peckinpah's Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid, Dylan's Rolling Thunder Revue and Renaldo and Clara
I agree with mentosandmanatees that Blanchett did a terrific job, and would also argue that Ledger's role takes on some resonance in the light of the manner of his recent death: divorce, custody issues, fame, paparazzis all playing a role there, as the do for his character in I'm Not There
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