I'm Not There

Writer/director Todd Haynes comes up with the most unique and astonishing idea for a musical biography in light-years, casting six different actors (including one woman) as distinct variations on the legendary Bob Dylan. Heath Ledger, Richard Gere, Christian Bale, Marcus Carl Franklin, Ben Whishaw, and, yes, Cate Blanchett all play Dylan at key points in his life. And though the results are uneven in this overlong (135 minutes) dissertation of all things Dylan, when it works it soars. Focusing on six distinct periods, the film starts out with Franklin as a young black boy named Woody (meant to represent the Woody Guthrie phase of Dylan's life), moves on to other eras, including Bale as the Poet Dylan, Ledger as the conceited actor Dylan, and Gere in the strangest section of all as a kind of western Dylan, meant to represent the movie he starred in, Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid. All of these have underlying tones of the many conflicting and complex faces this artist has displayed in his unique life. Haynes achieves all this remarkably without actually ever using Dylan's name. Each of these characters has a pseudonym, including Blanchett as "Jude," playing Dylan in his high-haired mid-'60s period when he experimented musically (and otherwise). If you think including the blonde Australian actress is just a piece of stunt casting, it may well have started that way, but through sheer skill and brilliance she has delivered the most audacious, astounding, and entertaining performance of the year by anyone, male or female. There really isn't much story here, just a lot of vignettes and insights into the man, but they are so uniquely rendered that they capture this one-of-a-kind genius in ways that couldn't be imagined. Dylan had little to do with the project, but cooperated by thankfully allowing use of his music. From the opening "Stuck Inside of Mobile With the Memphis Blues Again" to the end credits, the soundtrack is just smokin'.