Music to the ears

Legendary musician Bob Dylan's many lives each find a place in this biopic.

Bob Dylan’s name appears only once, fleetingly, in the opening titles of I’m Not There. “Inspired by the music and the many lives of Bob Dylan” — the title reads. That’s about all. While straightforward biopics in the past have worked well — most recently comes to mind Ray, based on the life of musician Charles Ray and the charming Walk the Line, chronicling the life of singer Johnny Cash. In I’m Not There, however, director Todd Haynes pulls off something else altogether.

He understands so well that every man, or woman, for that matter — famous or otherwise — has so many, many disaparate stories to tell of every stage and phase of their lifetime, that to limit a personality in the realm of a single character, is, in fact, not wholly accurate or insightful. And so, he does justice to the many lives of Dylan, taking the liberty of shaping six actors, and, in effect, six different characters who represent varying phases in the great musician’s life.

Haynes lets loose a nuanced screenplay, one that zigzags comfortably through each of the six characters. So we meet 11-year-old Woody, played enthusiastically by Marcus Carl Franklin, a character most likely a reference to Dylan’s love early in his years for folk musician Woody Guthrie. Cut to Christian Bale, who plays Jack Rollins, a young folk singer of the 1960s.

This part of the film is shot in documentary style, and there is also a Joan Baez-inspired character in Alice Fabian (Julianne Moore) who speaks of her relationship as a singer with Rollins. Shots of Fabian and Rollins together on stage are distinctly reminiscent of Baez and Dylan, of course. Equally endearing is Heath Ledger as Robbie Clark, an actor who, in a movie, is shown playing the role of Jack Rollins the singer.

But it is Cate Blanchett, who stars as veteran singer Jude Quinn, who will stay in your mind. With her short fuzzy hairdo and Dylan-like walk she is top-notch. Watch the scenes where she is seen giving interviews, exasperated at the preposterous questions reporters throw at her about her, questioning her music and motives. “I know more about you than what you would ever know about me,” she rages.

Each one of the Dylan-inspired alters are true to their part; and there are also Richard Gere and Ben Wishaw lending their bit. If you aren’t well-aquainted with the loves and lives of Dylan, a quick reading could help you appreciate the film a little better.