Hey look, a biopic that actually fits its subject!

Rating: 7/10 (6 February 2008)

This film honestly could not have come sooner. Now that the world has "Dewey Cox", the idea of the biopic as cliché (think about it, do artists lives ALWAYS follow that particular narrative arc?) has garnered its own momentum to literally standardize public figures lives into similar profiles. This movie evades and destroys this effect completely by throwing out veracity and accepting all of Bob Dylan's idiosyncratic messages, identities, stories, themes, and creative drives at face value, no matter how contradictory they may seem. The result is a movie that is possibly the "truest" version of an artist's life: one that just says everything he does to represent himself is right, and builds up a much more interesting character than a single identity.
Now, in terms of the various actors, they all do their due. Cate Blanchett and Christian Bale manage to project Dylan best by far, as they grab hold of his tics and his movements like dogs at raw meat and never let go. Todd Haynes also makes sure that the "different" story-lines are inter-cut and layered so that no stress is given to a single "character" and a much clearer understanding of Dylan's various identities as one identity is argued.
That said, because of this approach, Haynes has the regrettable and understandably difficult job of trying to figure out where to start and where to end. Inevitably, "I'm Not There" ended up running about a half an hour too long, something that could have been easily ignored except for how ultimately exhausting the movie is. HOWEVER, this movie is very experimental in the way that it uses cinematic devices to tie these seemingly contradictory approaches into a portrait that is at times spectacular, gorgeous, and compelling... and during a moment or two, manages to be all three! One particular point about Bob Dylan that should be noted and that this movie places emphasis on is his desire to evade classification. As shown quite graphically in "I'm Not There", Dylan has alienated many of his own fans with his refusal to set himself on a single course. As a result, this movie itself can alienate a lot of viewers with its refusal to settle down to one direct theme or concept. Sometimes "meaningfulness" comes almost into grasp, only to have the scene end and a completely different story continue where it last left off. The entire movie is "in media res" as concerns where he came from and where he's going. In that way, "I'm Not There" gratefully evades placing a sense of closure to an already idiosyncratic subject who is not yet dead.
--PolarisDiB