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I’M NOT THERE
Directed by Todd Haynes.
Produced by Christine Vachon, James D. Stern, John Sloss & John Goldwyn.
Written by Todd Haynes & Oren Moverman.
Director of Photography Edward Lachman.
Edited by Jay Rabinowitz.
Released by the Weinstein Company.
USA. 135 min. Rated R.
With Christian Bale, Cate Blanchett, Marcus Carl Franklin, Richard Gere, Heath Ledger, Ben Whishaw, Charlotte Gainsbourg, David Cross, Bruce Greenwood, Julianne Moore & Michelle Williams.

Instead of a Bob Dylan biopic or a documentary account, I’m Not There is an exploration. Six actors of different ages, sexes, and races play seven characters tightly or loosely based on Dylan, at various ages and in various guises. The casting, reminiscent of Todd Solondz’s Palindromes, has a layered, prismatic effect – instead of watching a straightforward story, the viewer is plunged into an often-psychedelic atmosphere.

Like all of Haynes’s movies, I’m Not There is beautiful, and many of the scenes he creates are visually unforgettable. Each scene has a unique look and style, like the surreal and imaginary town of Riddle, Missouri, with eerie twins, circus freaks, and exotic animals roaming among the townspeople. Sprawling 1960s homes, Greenwich Village, Mod London, and the American countryside are rendered with equal grace. It is on this level – as a visceral, trippy experience – that the film works best.

There’s no doubt that I’m Not There, like Haynes’s glam rock Velvet Goldmine, is a cure for the common biopic. Any conventional Dylan biography, or even a documentary, risks falling into clichés about “the voice of a generation.” Haynes has written that, “Dylan is difficult and mysterious and evasive and frustrating, and it only makes you identify with him more as he skirts identity.”

On the other hand, Haynes’s Dylan is so elusive, and so multiply drawn, that at certain points, and perhaps even in the film overall, he gets lost altogether. The first Dylan manifestation, an 11-year-old black boy who calls himself Woody Guthrie (Marcus Carl Franklin), pokes fun at the real Dylan’s infamous habit of spinning crazy yarns and telling lies about his origins. The second Dylan, Jack Rollins (Christian Bale), is only seen in press clippings or documentary-style footage, and when he transforms into the Pentecostal Pastor John (also played by Bale), we still see him onstage, speechifying, and at a distance. Cate Blanchett’s scrawny Jude is more reminiscent of David Bowie than Bob Dylan, lost in a series of spotlights, motel rooms, and crushes of fans. Jude literally dies in the movie, while Billy the Kid (Richard Gere) survives his showdown and grows old.

In the most human and accessible spin on Dylan, Robbie (Heath Ledger), an actor who plays Jack Rollins in a movie, grows more and more estranged from his wife, Claire (Charlotte Gainsbourg, a wonderfully wise, sweet amalgam of Dylan’s ex-wife Sarah Lownds and Suze Rotolo, his girlfriend from the famous Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan album cover) as the Vietnam War unfolds. But we rarely, if ever, get to see who they are as people, or what drives them, or how they operate. I’m Not There is almost an anti-biopic.

Haynes plunges into some deep themes about Dylan's life and legacy – the creation of poetry, the struggles of an artist who is also a political voice, and the burden of celebrity. Beyond that, there are a few appearances by real-life characters - a Billy the Kid who's no kid, a Woody Guthrie who's obviously not Woody Guthrie, a pitch-perfect Allen Ginsberg (David Cross), Arthur Rimbaud (Ben Wishaw), and Black Panther cameos (Antoine Benz plays Bobby Seale and blues musician Rabbit Brown in another scene.)

I’m Not There is a philosophical foray into the myth of Bob Dylan, a puzzle about a puzzle, and it’s worth watching not only for the strong performances and great music and visuals, but also because it calls into question many of the very clichés it avoids. Elizabeth Bachner
November 21, 2007