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I love this movie so much

The acting in this movie is really good.

There's no way I can possibly love it entirely but I just think its ridiculously bad, but enjoyable at the same time.

The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

I'm Not ThereIt is difficult to pull off a tale with multiple characters with various; someway interconnected, tale that is set in a poignant tone and still hold the audience for more than 2 hours even though it fails to connect with them easily. Todd Haynes; the writer-director, and Oren Moverman; the screenwriter's, script comes with a lot of instructions and requirement that is almost fulfilled while depicting it on screen but some of it feels missing too, in the end. On performance level, the feature scores majestically with the help of Christian Bale, Cate Blanchett, Heath Ledger and Richard Gere. I'm Not There is a musical but not your typical one, it may comes off as cathartic in the end after surviving this empirical world of Todd Haynes in an overlong script that raises question whether it is worth it or not.

Let me begin by saying that this movie isn't made for everybody (which is a shame): To take the most out of it, the viewer has to understand a few things about Bob Dylan's history. Also, there has to be interest in his music, or in true music - art itself. So, if you don't know much about Bob Dylan, it's extremely important that you get your facts straight (and watching Martin Scorsese's "No Direction Home" it's the best way to do that) before watching this movie. That being said, we can't talk about I'm Not There and it's series of fantastic achievements,as an biographical movie, and as a work of art - and it is nothing less than a brilliant, beautiful work of art.I'm Not There it's an non-chronological, non-literal, multi-layered movie about a lot of things. First, it's about Bob Dylan. Second, it's about art, music, and the most striking segment of it, it's about love. Director Todd Haynes pays homage, here, to a series of other movies; He makes visual and spoken references of Dylan's lyrics, of things Dylan said in concerts, of things that were said about Dylan, and even to other movies - Clearly referencing the already mentioned Scorsese's brilliant documentary, but also the classic "Don't Look Back", and "Pat Garret & Billy The Kid". All of those are direct visual references, and the final product of this is a very effective and successful synthesis of Dylan's extensive production - other subtle references, such as a couple of dirty, sad kids mourning a dead horse that we see for only a second (taking us back to Dylan's absolute classic "A Hard Rain's A- Gonna Fall" , in which he sings, "I met a young child beside a dead pony"), helps the movie to capture Dylan's vast imaginary with nearly perfection. All of those are showed to us unchronologically, without any further explication - we know the characters that appear on the screen are supposed to be the same person, but Haynes presents us with a little black boy, an actor whose relationship with his wife is told with flashbacks and flash-forwards, and an androgynous rock star called Jude - all at the same time. It's a beautiful mosaic, and may even be a puzzle. Putting it together can be difficult, but extremely rewarding. And that reward comes with an unique and brilliant artistic style. Each character, or each facet of this person, has it's unique tone, it's unique figurine and filmography. The music in this movie is formed exclusively of Dylan songs and Dylan covers, and there are some overwhelming musical sessions. You don't have to be a Dylan fan to get emotional in the "Going to Acapulco" segment, which features a burlesque aspect to it all. Very unique and beautiful. The emotional core of the movie rests in the shoulders of Heath Ledger's character. It's a story of a failed marriage, of which we see it's beginning and it's ultimate tragic conclusion, that never fails to bring tears in my eyes. It's painful to watch, in the best way possible, and captures with absolute perfection the tone of the Blood on the Tracks record.

Unless you know something about the subject of this biography, you're bound to be confused by "I'm Not There". It is "inspired by the music & many lives of Bob Dylan." For the unenlightened, Mr. Dylan was famous, long ago ("for playing electric violins on desolation row"). The film, by writer/director Todd Haynes is excellent, but inaccessible. And, strangely, if you know anything about the subject, you're going to learn approximately nothing knew. To help navigate, there were four main Dylans… FIRST and famed-mostly, Dylan was a "Rock Star". This period is played out by Cate Blanchett as "Jude Quinn". This character sports a fictitious name, but like much of the movie, comes (not from McCartney's "Jude" but) obviously from Dylan's oeuvre - the Christian "Jude" and "Quinn the Eskimo". This Dylan has the clearest Beginning and End points of any. He was "born" when startling his folk audience by "going electric" (guitar) and "dies" in a motorcycle accident at the peak of his fame.SECOND most famous, and highly influential, Dylan was the "Folk Singer" replaced by the above. Here, it's Christian Bale as "Jack Rollins". This Dylan was quite popular on his own, but was much "covered" by other folk artists and rock bands. During this time, Dylan was more like a very big cult, and his songs were more widely heard when other people made hit records from them. The songs were more Political (protest) during this time, getting vague later (with exceptions, like "Hurricane").THIRD time around for Dylan was his "Cowboy" persona, essayed herein by Richard Gere and named "Billy the Kid" after the outlaw anti-hero Dylan play-acted. This was the Dylan emerging after the motorcycle accident. Dylan left a bunch of unreleased tracks (known as "The Basement Tapes") and "reinvented" himself as a more countrified mellow rocker (listen to "Lay Lady Lay"). Here, the "stages" of Dylan's art become more blurred as he no longer commanded the attention he did earlier.FOURTH biggest change, after a long run without defining boundaries, was the "Born Again" or "Christian" Dylan. This startled some people, but (as the film points out) it shouldn't have been unexpected. In fact, the "Fame"/"Drugs"/"Jesus" continuum is very common among music stars, as anyone watching MTV's 1990s biographies could plainly see. For this film, Mr. Bale (uniquely) plays two Dylan incarnations, revising his earlier "Folk Singer" character "Jack Rollins" to become "Pastor John". BUT, that's not all. There are three less public parts of the quadraphonic Dylan covered by Mr. Haynes… FIRST is Dylan's mysterious boyhood masquerade as "Woody Guthrie" played by Marcus Carl Franklin. He is the kid on the train, sporting the Fascist-Killing-Guitar-in-the-West. Of course, Woody Guthrie was a real person, and he had a tremendous influence on Dylan. While cute and well done, this section is not revelatory, which could be why the film project had "the real" Bob Dylan's blessing. The real Dylan, who appears briefly near the end, did not appreciate biographers peeking into his personal history.SECOND is Dylan "The Poet" named "Arthur Rimbaud" and played by Ben Whishaw. Like the above, but more of a conglomerate, the character is a real French poet named Arthur Rimbaud who influenced Dylan (and many other rock stars). The Dylans are presented in sort of an overlapping chronological order - which may not make sense to the uninitiated - but this one is used more like a muse for the others, accentuating Dylan's reputation as a true "Tarantula" of a Poet, even without the music.THIRD and perhaps most esoteric is Dylan "The Actor" played by Heath Ledger as "Robbie Clark". Dylan did do some movies. Mortals do not forgive. Even an epic focusing in his relationship with a certain sad-eyed of the lowlands. Rather than show Dylan acting in a movie, this "Actor" section perversely shows the more camera-shy Dylan. It seems highly fictitious, but you've got to appreciate "Dylan" telling what looks like "Patti Smith", "chicks can never be poets." (!) And, "I Want You" is a terrific vignette. In sum, "I'm Not There" is an excellent film for obvious believers, with minus zero insight into its subject. Bobby Zimmerman could hardly disapprove. By the way, the fact that the vinyl "Stuck Inside of Mobile with the…" was amusingly continued in the "Blonde on Blonde" gate-fold jacket as "…Memphis Blues Again" is no excuse to edit the song. And, changing the lyric, "Here is your 'throat' back, thanks for the loan..." to "Here is your 'mouth' back, thanks for the loan..." really sucks. Moreover, it's sacrilege.******* I'm Not There (9/3/07) Todd Haynes ~ Christian Bale, Cate Blanchett, Heath Ledger, Richard Gere

I'm Not There (2007)So startling in its invention, so beautiful and stunning the photography and acting, and so appropriate for its subject, Bob Dylan, why does it not quite hold water?Don't get me wrong, I love the movie, the music, and Cate Blanchett equally. It has an extraordinary logic to its many many parts, as well, making not only a fanciful (downright surreal) patchwork of a movie, but a reasonable commentary on the true life Dylan. I could and will watch it again.If you don't know much about Bob Dylan, or don't like his music, I have to say the odds are against you here. If there ever was a movie filled with references (many of them highly symbolic and distant, veiled even), this is it. Even if you like Dylan you might find it hard to follow, so you need to enjoy just sitting back and going for the ride. I'm not sure getting stoned first would help in this case because it's so disorienting at times.Advice for the uninitiated? Read a quick bio of Dylan (Wikipedia might work) and get a sense of at least these core moments: 1) he visited Woody Guthrie on his death bed and was playing folk songs in a traditional vein, 2) he modernized when he moved to the Village, still keeping the folk sound with edgy new lyrics (and this is when he met Joan Baez), 3) he shocked everyone when he went electric at a folk festival (actually at Newport), 4) he was in a near fatal motorcycle accident in 1966 5) he took on a cowboy persona for his 1967 album, John Wesley Harding. That should help with some orientation for the different characters and scenes.For those who are right for the film, including no doubt the director Todd Haynes, who got Dylan's approval for the project ahead of time, this will be a memorable experience.