The many faces of Dylan.

Rating: 7/10 (10 January 2008)

Who is Bob Dylan? What is Bob Dylan? Poet, author, actor, revolutionary, genius, freak or simply a constant reinvention by one Robert Alan Zimmerman. Whatever he is and was and will be is a question that people have been trying to answer from the first time he appeared until the present day and Todd Haynes' 'I'm Not There' is another in a long line of explorations on the concept of Dylan, his music and his influence. Telling the story in just over two hours with fragments from boy to old man Haynes uses five actors and one superb actress to play the great man in various guises throughout his multi-layered career Marcus Carl Franklin starts the film as the young Guthrie loving upstart with a head full of dreams and a case full of battered guitar, Christian Bale plays the fledgling protest Bob (and in a later segment the religious pastor) Ben Whishaw plays the French cigarette smoking beatnik poet, Heath Ledger is the seventies rebel, Cate Blancett steals the show as the sixties icon and Richard Gere completes the line up as the ageing outlaw, all in all it's a heady mix and survives because of excellent performances and direction. Of course the film wouldn't be anything with out the music and Bob gave his blessing for them to use it, alongside interpretations of the songs by the likes of Yo La Tengo, Wilco and Calexico to name but a few and the soundtrack rolls through the film like a mist of greatest hits with pieces jumping out from behind the scenes to make you tap your foot. The script is sharp and has some genuine laugh out loud scenes (in particular watch for the Beatles bit) each scene is so different from the surreal village at the end to the black and white sixties trips and the bleached out court room, it all weaves together to create the blanket of the life of one of the biggest names in music history. Whether you need to be a fan to enjoy it as much as I did I'm not sure, it should stand up on its merits alone, but with the awards season on the horizon expect to see the film in various lists and with her method portrayal if Blancett doesn't win a best supporting actress then something is wrong. A brilliant semi-biopic of the man, the legend and the sometimes unfathomable Bob Dylan.