Susan Granger’s review of “I’m Not There” (The Weinstein Company)
If you’ve ever been curious about experimental cinema, this is it.
Inspired by the tumultuous life and music of Bob Dylan, it’s a kaleidoscopic, non-linear meditation with little coherence. Eccentric Dylan, called by six different names, is played by six different actors – of different races and genders – each representing a phase in his chaotic life.
Dylan’s childhood is embodied by an 11 year-old African-American runaway (Marcus Carl Franklin) calling himself ‘Woody Guthrie’ in homage to the legendary musician. Riding in railroad box-cars with hoboes, he endears himself to them – and others – playing guitar.
Growing up, he becomes cryptic poet Arthur Rimbaud (Ben Wishaw) and Jack (Christian Bale), a ‘protest’ singer in Greenwich Village, whose lover is activist/folksinger Alice Fabian (Julianne Moore); Jack re-appears later as born-again Pastor John.
Then there’s Robbie (Heath Ledger), a New York actor who’s in love with French painter Claire (Charlotte Gainsbourg). When success overwhelms, he morphs into swaggering, drugged-out Jude Quinn (Cate Blanchett) and eventually becomes a reclusive outlaw (Richard Gere).
Writer/director Todd Haynes (“Far From Heaven”), working with writer Oren Kaufman, assumes a knowledge of Dylan that some audience members may lack, so I suspect it will appeal, primarily, to Dylan devotees.
Cate Blanchett’s androgynous performance is most memorable; ironically, she’s the only one who truly captures Dylan’s mannerisms. And Bruce Greenwood scores as an exasperated British journalist voicing my exact thoughts: “I’m not sure I follow.”
The photography and editing are commendable and the actors mainly lip-sync Dylan’s songs, so the soundtrack incorporates the work many musicians. Only at the conclusion does one glimpse the real Dylan on the harmonica. On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, “I’m Not There” is a bizarre, discordant, surreal 6 – definitely not a mainstream movie.
