The Unbearable Heaviness of Boring

Rating: 5/10 (25 April 2010)

This was an audacious concept. Having Bob Dylan portrayed by half a dozen different actors assuming fictionalized personas. As if the real Bob Dylan wasn't full enough of terminal contradictions. But as the producers of this boring, pretentious mess could only paraphrase and not quote directly from any documented reality (what is reality?) except Dylan's songs, of course, the film looses itself in the meanders of absolute arbitrariness and sundry parallel universes in spite of the best efforts of some worthy actors and talents. I lived through the sixties and Dylan's rise to celebrity and I didn't recognize anything of my perceptions of him in this film, probably because either the film or Dylan himself (who knows, right?) is more preoccupied by the flotsam and jetsam of terminal hype, the fame game and/or celebrity rehab scenarios to actually care what a man's music is supposed to mean (if anything). If you ever saw anything worthy in Dylan's music, you'll think twice about his talent after seeing this film. If you always thought he was a fake and a flake, your opinion will not be seriously challenged by this delirious and wasteful Actors' Studio job-creating program.