Ryan McNeil
We’ve all been to a party where someone on the karaoke mic goes a few songs too far. That drunkard trying to rock “Love Is a Battlefield”? That’s I’M NOT THERE.
The movie is a daring attempt at telling the life story of a daring artist. The problem with being daring is that you leave yourself a huge margin of error. I’M NOT THERE does the best it can to touch on many facets of Bob Dylan’s legend – and there have been many facets to Bob Dylan’s legend. Using different actors for each phase of Bob’s life, and working them all together in a broken narrative was a bold choice of storytelling by director Todd Sayles. It sets I’M NOT THERE apart from other recent bio-pics of musical icons. Unfortunately though, it also works against the bigger picture. Rather than painting an abstract portrait, Sayleshas turned Dylan’s life into a Magic-Eye 4-D image.
I first watched the movie back at The Toronto International Film Festival, and have taken awhile to stew on my reaction. Looking back on the acting in the film, it stands up as Cate Blanchett’s achievement, with the other actors in a four-way-tie for second place. Marcus Carl Franklin does well with what he’s given, though his part feels like a bit of an afterthought. Christian Bale gets the distinction of playing two different phases of Bob’s life. He does what he can to separate them, but isn’t really given much to work with when it comes to Dylan’s born-again-Christian era. He provides some of the best musical performances, but all of his scenes are shot as though the camera were a member of the audience. It’s possible that he could have given Cate a run for her money, had the movie only cared to get a bit closer to him. I mentioned in my first reaction that the storyline with Richard Gereas Billy The Kid felt forced, and bogged the whole film down. I can only wonder how much better the movie would have been had that screen time been given to Bale.
As for Blanchett, her performance is daring, and remarkably accurate. She gets Dylan’s androgyny, ambivalence, and arrogance spot-on. While I am quick to peg much of the movie’s shortcomings on Sayles‘ direction, I must give him full credit for what he was able to get out of Blanchett. During this part of his life, Bob was notoriously mystified by the attention he was getting. The label of being The Voice of a Generation was weighing him down, and his every move and word was analysed to death. His head-shaking and shoulder-shrugging was becoming almost as recognized as his guitar and harmonica. I can only imagine how many hours of watching and listening to all-things-Dylan that Blanchett and Saylesmust have done in order to achieve this performance. Quite simply, it’s the best acting I’ve seen all year.
While many of the most important moments in Dylan’s life come to life with amazing clarity, some other milestones are lost in puddles of muddy symbolism. I’ve come to refer to this film as “Advanced Dylan”. If you’ve listened to his albums a few times, and sat through films like DON’T LOOK BACK or NO DIRECTION HOME, you’ll be in for a treat. If not, you may find yourself a tad confused. Even bored. It sings a few songs amazingly well…but doesn’t know when to put down the mic.
Yay for little pink spoons! Very interesting review! I haven’t seen this one yet as I’m not being a huge Dylan fan but still hovers on the ‘to see’. Now I’m more curious!