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I'M NOT THERE Send This Review to a Friend
Perhaps the most pretentious film of all at the 2007 New York Film Festival was “I’m Not There,” Todd Haynes’s ambitious riff on the life and career of Bob Dylan. It has also previously been showcased at the Toronto Festival.
Six different actors play fictionalized versions of Dylan, or characters meant to suggest Dylan, in assortment of settings and time frames, including Marcus Carl Franklin as a black “Dylan,” and even Cate Blanchett in one portion. Apart from the conceit of the odd-ball idea, Blanchett is the most interesting of the lot, and fine actress as she is, Blanchett gives the film a special aura for the time she is on screen.
The highly stylized film, which also stars Richard Gere, Heath Ledger, Ben Whishaw, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Julianne Moore and David Cross, has its moments, but seems to go on forever and tends to grow boring. One admires Haynes’ nerve and vision, but often one may wish for just a straightforward portrait of the real Bob Dylan.
The film, although only 2 hours 15 minutes, seems to run forever, getting more and more convoluted and less and less involving. At times I wished I weren’t there either. A Weinstein Company release.
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