God save the secrets

Rating: 8/10 (26 February 2008)

It takes an unusual movie to do justice to an unusual man. "I'm not there" is anything but your run-of-the-mill biopic, but the question is, is it unusual enough? To the extent that Haynes succeeds, it is by not trying to give us the man himself. He plays with times, places, and, most importantly, names. It's an old habit of Dylan's to pick a name to fit (or mock) the occasion; born Robert Zimmermann, he has dubbed himself Terry Prendergast, Tedham Porterhouse, or Jack Fate in different contexts, to name but his most prominent aliases. But I feel Haynes could have gone further in deconstructing Dylan. A little more than half-way into the movie, there is a flat out surrealistic 5-minute segment revolving around BBC reporter Keenan Jones (Bruce Greenwood), set to "Ballad of a Thin Man". I wish there had been more of that. Nevertheless, you walk away from this movie thinking that the pieces don't quite fit, which I think of as a tribute to the patchwork persona Dylan has created for himself. Of course, he will keep changing it with whatever he sings, says, writes, and does. "I'm not there" reminds us what a strange and restless man he really is. Outstanding performances, among many others, by Ben Whishaw, Christian Bale, and Julianne Moore. She got Joan Baez' lilt exactly right. Also, I had no idea how hot Michelle Williams could be until I saw her in the part of party girl Coco Rivington.