Review of I'm Not There

I'm Not There at TIFF

There have been a couple of documentaries about Bob Dylan that have become the gold standard for not only telling his story, but for music documentaries in general. Don’t Look Back and No Direction Home are both pretty well unassailable, so how do you make a narrative film that can stand with them? If you're Todd Haynes you go as far opposite a documentary as you can, portraying Dylan as seven different personas, performed by six different actors, each reflecting a different filmic style. Not a single character is named Bob Dylan, but they represent significant moments of Dylan’s life in one way or another, more often as caricature than not. And fuck, it actually works. I have followed Todd Haynes for a long time. He is nothing if not bold in his projects. Poison, Safe, Far From Heaven et al were all risky forays and that is why I enjoy each of them so much. Even still, on paper I'm Not There was an extremely dicey proposition. I was worried. In various stories Dylan's life is portrayed by Christian Bale, Cate Blanchett, Marcus Carl Franklin, Richard Gere, Heath Ledger, and Ben Whishaw. The best among them is Blanchett playing electric era meltdown Dylan. She is fucking incredible. It certainly helps that I am most intrigued by that period of Dylan (and I'm sure I'm not alone), but she is note perfect in her portrayal of his dandified character, pulling off his mannerisms and mumbles in the most convincing way. This thread also adopts a fairytale surrealism that is great fun to watch. I would have been perfectly satisfied with a movie only consisting of this style and era with Blanchett in the lead. I hope she wins every award ever created for this. But hers is far from the only noteworthy performance in the film. Bale also does very good work in his segments as the seventies Christian conversion Dylan. Ledger does a fine job as well, but being stuck in the most standard dramatic storytelling of the film he doesn’t ever get the chance to flex his muscles like his co-stars. David Cross deserves mention for his spot-on Allen Ginsberg as well. I'm Not There is not a perfect film. Coming in at over two hours it is overlong by at least fifteen or twenty minutes, though I suspect it may be trimmed in time for the wider release. Richard Gere’s Jesse James storyline in particular could be done away with. It’s not even that his storyline is bad, but it pales in comparison to the other threads of the movie and it just becomes a test of patience no matter how pretty it is. I felt that there was a perfect moment for the film to end only to endure one more Gere scene. As much as I enjoyed it, I have no idea how this film might be received. I felt like I was the only one laughing at a number of points and there were a lot of people filing out closer to the end. A lot of people. I admit, the final few scenes definitely drag and I think a lot could be remedied by exercising a little more economy (I know you're reading this, Haynes and Vachon). A few faults aside, if you can let yourself be carried away by Haynes experiment it's a rewarding trip. Aaron. whatsaninternet.blogspot.com

Posted on 09/16/07 by: Aaron 04:57 PM