Sadly Over-hyped

Entertaining from beginning to end, it maintains the spirit of the franchise while establishing it's own seal with a fun cast

The acting is good, and the firecracker script has some excellent ideas.

The best films of this genre always show a path and provide a takeaway for being a better person.

First and foremost, Bob Dylan is a genius and a perfect subject for interpretation. A great idea with mixed results in I'm Not There. Cate Blanchett opens as Jude Quinn, a mid 1960s era Dylan getting on stage but quickly shown in a motorcycle accident. The British actress looks uncannily like the folk singer, especially in silhouette. Marcus Carl Franklin portrays Woody Guthrie and the eleven year old boy proves to be a major talent. He travels the country by train and in a time shift travels to a hospital to perform a song for the real Woody Guthrie. Christian Bale is in a documentary style portion as fans praise the great artist as the voice of a generation as he treats and reporters with contempt. Bobby does not come off to well as a human being.Later on, Bale reappears as a born again pastor, which showcases Dylan's brief Christian period , preaching to a congregation and singing the gospel tune "Pressing On" from the album "Saved."Heath Ledger is in a film within the film as an actor playing the Christian Bale character in the least interesting part of I'm Not There. The second unnecessary segment is Richard Gere as Billy the Kid looking for his dog and meeting Pat Garrett and a convoluted storyline with a funeral, a jail break and back to the train once again. I found the whole experience a disjointed mess with some fine acting. I love Dylan's work, so this is a wasted effort.

I must admit that I approached this film with low expectations after having read several negative reviews before actually seeing the DVD. The comments, for the most part, were as follows : "the movie made no sense", "it looked like it was made by high school film students trying to be artsy", "it wasn't an accurate depiction of Dylan at all", and finally "it was too long and too disjointed". I disagree with all of those comments/assessments.I found the movie to be interesting, creative, and engaging. And I'm not really even a big Dylan fan. But that notwithstanding, he's an interesting, complex individual who has had an enormous impact on not only the music industry, but the world at large.And even taking Dylan totally out of the picture, I feel that the movie worked because of the way it accurately depicted the struggles of ANY creative personality when it comes to the conflicts and contrasts between the public and the private individual. I also feel that the movie accurately depicted the struggles any creative personality has trying to maintain his or her integrity once popularity -- and the attendant commercialism that goes with popularity -- kicks in. The aspect of how fans both support, and to a certain extent control an artist was also poignantly addressed.For me, the most moving elements of the film involved the relationship between Robbie and Claire. I also was very impressed with Cate Blanchett's portrayal of Jude. The character that I found to be the least sympathetic (and/or the most disjointed) was Billy. But it was such a minor part that it wasn't enough for me to trash the film the way the other heavy critics did. I also found the soundtrack to be the glue as well as the engine that propelled the movie right along.Maybe the most amazing thing about the whole film is the fact that Dylan SURVIVED, and is still a dynamic, vibrant force -- 45 years after his huge impact on the music scene and the world. Love him or hate him -- he has endured the test of time, and in true Sinatra fashion, he clearly did it his way.

I'm not a spoiler type of guy, but i'll mention a lil bit of this and a lil bit of that. First of all the cast is spectacular with majestic performances, and if someone would ask me why i think this way, i have a suggestion... Please watch Scorsese's No direction home- Bob Dylan and watch closely, and then you can see why Cate Blanchett, Heath Ledger and Christian Bale did a fantastic job, pure art. You're not there, you are everywhere... That's exactly how i feel about Dylan. There were a lot of changes in his life, pure chaos, but many of us saw the beauty of that chaos, the spirit of Dylan's believes,lyrics, poetry. "I go where i please". Thank you, i loved it.

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.