Well, I asked for it. Traditional obscurity-fame-fall-redemption biopics of bands and musicians like Walk the Line and Dreamgirls are formulaic and boring, while sticking to hagiographic, melodramatic facts (Control) isn’t much more interesting. Where was my musician biopic as unpredictable and engrossing as the musician and his music? It’s right here—I’m Not There—and it’s not for everyone.
Although you don’t have to be a Dylan fanatic, it helps in order to pick up on all the references: to his lyrics, to famous moments in his career, to photographs and album covers, to direct quotes from the duo of documentaries, both D.A. Pennebaker’s Dont Look Back and Scorsese’s recent No Direction Home. (In a nod to the latter, Julianne Moore plays a flaky version of Joan Baez, unintentionally funny and complete with turquoise jewelry.) As for specific references to Dylan’s life, a music-store-type guy behind us murmured aloud most of the references and musician cameos (There’s Kim Gordon of Sonic Youth! There’s that guy from My Morning Jacket!) I only picked up on the broad ones: Dylan drunkenly accepting an award and making a contentious comment about the Kennedy assassination, Pete Seeger brandishing an axe to cut short Dylan’s electric performance at the Newport Folk Festival, that kid who shouted “Judas!” during a concert, the motorcycle accident, and so on.
Cate Blanchett, recreating the mean-spirited, drug-addled Dylan from Dont Look Back, gets the meatiest role with the most screentime, and her Dylan is the most Dylanesque with its tics, slouches and shades atop a curly head of hair. (I’m thinking Oscar nomination; the academy digs actor-factors like weight gain, mental retardation and other feats of physical derrring-do, including gender reversals.)
Most reviews you’ll read of the film state that the Richard Gere segment, in which he plays a sort-of Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid-era Dylan, is confusing, extraneous and should have been cut. I agree and add that it brings the film to a halt with its languid pacing of long takes and Gere riding around on horseback in search of his lost dog, which is as interesting as it sounds.
Charlotte Gainsbourg plays a version of Sara, Dylan’s first wife with whom his relationship soured in the mid ’70s, and I gotta tell ya, that woman is hot. She’s got this weird angular beauty to her face that results when you frappé the DNA of France’s ugliest man and most beautiful woman.
I’m Not There hops around between Dylans a lot and can be hard at times to follow but I relished its momentum and its wholly fresh take on an equally cryptic subject within the tired biopic genre.