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John ended his post on the movie with:
“Pray that Blanchett doesn’t get nominated so the rest of you don’t have to watch I’m Not There.”
It appears we did not pray hard enough, as Blanchett got nominated, forcing the rest of us to watch I’m Not There. Don’t get me wrong, I’m a huge Bob Dylan fan. I own Nashville Skyline on vinyl and love it to pieces. I listen to Theme Time Radio Hour on XM (the show he hosts). I’ve probably built a case, at some point in my life, that The Traveling Wilburys are one of the 20 greatest bands ever. Heck, I’ve seen Masked and Anonymous. You know what, let’s start there. Masked and Anonymous was written by Bob Dylan and Larry Charles, starred Bob Dylan and all sorts of cool actors (No, seriously, go look and see who was in it.), and was totally bleeping incomprehensible. I watched it with my family, and I think my parents fell asleep, and my brother went off to go screw around on the computer. Twenty minutes into the movie. So, in a way, I can see how I’m Not There would be the biopic Bob Dylan always wanted: full of fun actors, insanely incomprehensible, seemingly pointless, a biopic only the vaguest sense of the term, and something of a morality play. Thus, one could probably argue, like a Bob Dylan song. Except that Dylan songs are, you know, enjoyable.
I’m Not There is nonsensical, unintelligible, and pretentious. Dylanologists will get a kick out of it but I couldn’t wait to get out of the theater.
On the face of it, I’m Not There has an interesting concept. It’s a Bob Dylan-themed movie, not a biopic, and explores the different stages, versions, and aspects of Dylan’s life. Six actors play six (or is it seven?) different Dylan-like characters, an intriguing technique and one that actually does not fall flat. But nothing particularly interesting happens to the characters. They talk at you. And talk. And talk. In that incomprehensible Dylan style of talk. 140 minutes of that is very hard to take.
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