Bob Dylan gave director Todd Haynes full permission to use his music for an audacious portrait of the paradoxical singer/songwriter. The result is truly something special. 
Haynes’ high-concept biopic utilizes six actors to portray various incarnations of Dylan — an imitator of Woody Guthrie, a modern prophet, a media enigma, a punk innovator, a restless family man, a cinema cowboy, and a born-again Christian.
The movie spins like a roulette wheel revisiting identities of Dylan that are emphasized with various cinematic styles that make each one distinct. Christian Bale, Cate Blanchette, Marcus Carl Franklin, Richard Gere, Heath Ledger, and Ben Whishaw embody the various phases of Dylan to generally remarkable effect.
“I’m Not There” would not work without Bob Dylan’s original music. Dylan’s songs are intrinsic to the time periods that Haynes stamps in indelible celluloid. The film emphasizes the vital importance of Bob Dylan’s songs. We have to hear the musical gears that Dylan shifted with seamless ease. For Dylan, answers did indeed seem to “blow in the wind.”
Here is a virtuosic display of Todd Haynes’ capacity for reflecting Dylan’s forward (musical, social, and personal) thinking via a blend of perfectly coded vignettes. It’s not a film for lazy audiences. Drink some coffee and get blissed.
Rated R. 135 mins.
