A chaotic film trying too hard to be like a Bob Dylan song

Christian Bale, Richard Gere, Heath Ledger, Marcus Carl Franklin, Ben Whishaw and (believe it or not) Cate Blanchett are all Bob Dylan. The film jumps from one Dylan to the next and back again, changes from colour to black and white and doesn’t seem to follow a narrative. Devout Dylan fans might argue that the movie is like one of his best songs, irritating yes, but great nonetheless. Don’t get me wrong, the film has some great parts to it. The delicate love scenes between the late Heath Ledger (rather fittingly as a James Dean-like idol) and Charlotte Gainsbourg are sweet but sad. Richard Gere as an aging version of Billy the Kid is so unlike the roles he is mostly known for.

However, the one outstanding performance in the movie is by the only woman portraying “The Man”. Cate Blanchett’s version of the drug-addled, rock ‘n’ roll anti-prophet with curly hair and sunglasses is probably the closest the entire film comes to the real deal. Marcus Carl Franklin, who plays the 11-year-old African-American kid as one of Dylan’s personas, should get a mention too. I daresay “we ain’t heard nothing yet” and that this musically talented kid can go far.


None of the actors in “I’m Not There” is really allowed to shine, though. The chaotic cut of the movie, the skips in chronology and lack of a centre make this film hard to follow. Its entire 135 minutes have you trying to find some kind of sense in the chaos, but the end only leaves you asking for the clue to the riddle. Even the critics don’t know what to make of “I’m Not There”. While the Boston Globe praises Haynes for managing to need “only six actors to show the various faces of Bob Dylan” and the Rolling Stone calls the movie a “feast for the eyes and ears”, The New Yorker thinks that it “makes Yellow Submarine look like a miracle of sober narrative”. The San Francisco Chronicle even goes as far as saying that “anyone can make a bad movie, but it takes a good filmmaker to make one as bad as I’m Not There”.

Personally, I agree with The New Yorker’s view. It’s not a bad movie per se, and the soundtrack is brilliant (purely Dylan, as one would expect in a biopic), it’s just the chaos that weighs it down a lot. I think if the six segments of Dylan’s character were actually put in chronological order, the film would be far more enjoyable, not just for Dylan novices. “I’m Not There” is an attempt to achieve the cinematic equivalent to a Dylan song, but I don’t think the movie does his legacy any justice.