I'm Not There' Review

The film depicts the personalities/ stages of career of musician Bob Dylan explored through using six actors to play the various facets of the singer. The actors are each given their own identity and name, none are actually called Bob Dylan but Haynes uses subtle references to his songs or inspirations in the names of each person.

It does not have a traditional story arc as the film doesn't aim to show a story of his life or his career but is far more philosophical in its outlook; I feel it aims to show simply the multi layers of a person in an irreverent and slightly nerdy way. It is most definitely a film for the most passionate of Dylan fans you really need to know and awful lot about the man as the film uses a lot of insider references. As someone who knows little about Bob Dylan other than his most famous songs, I believe this was one of the reasons the film was hard to follow. For example Marcus Carl Franklin’s character is called Woody Guthrie in reference to Dylan being inspired by him in his early days I only realised this after doing some research after watching the film.

Despite this I believe even if I had known more about the subject I would still have found it confusing and baffling as it is a very arty, unusually structured film. Some criticise it because of this however I feel it was a brave move to make a film which breaks with traditional cinematic conventions. Unfortunately for all its cleverness I didn’t find it very engaging. It is very wordy and although I like films with good dialogue. My lack of knowledge of the subject matter and the randomness of the plot made it quite a hard slog in places.

Praise can be found in the production: the recreation of 1960’s America was effective I really liked the way some of the film was shot in black and white other in colour. Franklins story depicted the rustic warm of the southern American landscape in 1930’s depression America while Gere’s western rebel in 18^th century America was so theatrically stylised, visually this was the most exciting part of the film; (even if as the audience you were wondering what the significance of the period was)! Also notable was Cate Blanchett’s Dylan meeting Andy Warhol at a post -modernist hallucinogenic party. Original Super 8 film of 1960’s Greenwich Village also artfully depicted the setting.  Of all the performances Blanchetts was stand out not only did she look better than all the men as the musical bard her performance was engaging and raw.

Overall it was an interesting and creative film and as a study of an artist of the 20^th century and wider cultural movements it was worth watching. I just feel it was perhaps trying to be too clever and in doing so a stronger message was ultimately lost.