In a Dylanesque surrealism, his character broken and reassembled with flawed brilliance

Rating: 7/10 (30 April 2010)

I'm Not There (2007)
So startling in its invention, so beautiful and stunning the photography and acting, and so appropriate for its subject, Bob Dylan, why does it not quite hold water?
Don't get me wrong, I love the movie, the music, and Cate Blanchett equally. It has an extraordinary logic to its many many parts, as well, making not only a fanciful (downright surreal) patchwork of a movie, but a reasonable commentary on the true life Dylan. I could and will watch it again.
If you don't know much about Bob Dylan, or don't like his music, I have to say the odds are against you here. If there ever was a movie filled with references (many of them highly symbolic and distant, veiled even), this is it. Even if you like Dylan you might find it hard to follow, so you need to enjoy just sitting back and going for the ride. I'm not sure getting stoned first would help in this case because it's so disorienting at times.
Advice for the uninitiated? Read a quick bio of Dylan (Wikipedia might work) and get a sense of at least these core moments: 1) he visited Woody Guthrie on his death bed and was playing folk songs in a traditional vein, 2) he modernized when he moved to the Village, still keeping the folk sound with edgy new lyrics (and this is when he met Joan Baez), 3) he shocked everyone when he went electric at a folk festival (actually at Newport), 4) he was in a near fatal motorcycle accident in 1966 5) he took on a cowboy persona for his 1967 album, John Wesley Harding. That should help with some orientation for the different characters and scenes.
For those who are right for the film, including no doubt the director Todd Haynes, who got Dylan's approval for the project ahead of time, this will be a memorable experience.