I'm Not There: DVD Review (2008)

Last year was a good year for Cate Blanchett even if the movies in which she appeared weren't very good themselves. The first film she lifted was “Elizabeth: The Golden Age,” and then came Todd Haynes' bizarre biopic "I'm Not There,” each of which benefited enormously from her Academy Award-nominated performances.   

Here, the actress co-stars as Jude, one of several characters meant to recall a fraction of the personality of the famously complicated musician Bob Dylan. She is an intriguing choice of casting, and the good news is that Blanchett pulls off the gender-bending just as seamlessly as you would expect.

Along with Dylan's music, which is interlaced throughout, Blanchett is the best part of the movie. If you decide to see it, she's the reason to see it. Unfortunately, the trouble with "I'm Not There" is that the movie itself isn't there. None of it adds up. The movie is a gimmicky, frustrating bear that’s a struggle to sit through.

The film's conceit is that it features six actors portraying different sides of Dylan's persona at different points in the musician's life.

Beyond Blanchett, who nails the singer's cagey rhythms, those actors include a very good Christian Bale, Heath Ledger, Richard Gere, Ben Whishaw and Marcus Carl Franklin, the latter of whom joins Blanchett in being the most unusual choice to play a version of Dylan since the actor is, after all, 13 years old and black.

While Haynes' intent is obvious--he believes that Dylan is so difficult to peg, several actors, regardless of gender, age or race, could portray him--the follow-through doesn’t work. This fractured jumble of vignettes is so self-aware and dull, you wonder what's the point of Haynes being experimental if his experiment doesn't yield something that's compelling or, at the very least, entertaining. Insight might have been a goal, but there's no insight here. Instead, too much of the movie feels like a strained, artsy con.

Read the full, unedited review here.

Grade: C-

View the trailer here: