Masked and Anonymous 2

Rating: 2/10 (10 September 2007)

Every Dylan fan knows when it comes to film if it ain't a documentary(don't look back, no direction home, the last waltz) then it's time to abandon all hope(pat garrett and billy the kid, renaldo and clara, hearts of fire, masked and anonymous). A great concept of multiple actors playing different stages in Dylans life gave me hope... Unfortunaely its an inaccessible, cryptic, circus of reenactments with a Richard Gere in pat garrettland part tacked on.
For a Dylan fan, the reenactments at times are boring especially when treading into territory Scorsese masterfully handled in No Direction Home. Other times such literal images as a tarantula walking across the screen for when he writes his book "tarantula" just seem...well, too literal.
There is a lot of Dylan trivia poured into this. Haynes gives the impression that he's really done his homework but to what effect? Of course the music is the strongest thing keeping this thing going(great Hollis Brown cover in there).
For a non-Dylan fan there's not much story or even character to hang on to. As the film passed 90 minutes a few groups made their way to the exits.
There was a hope that this would play like a film version of "chronicles" but it was just a hope. Let's hope the film version of "chronicles" isn't such a mess as this.