I'm Not There

She Said:

If you are a Bob Dylan aficionado and know every album, song, rumor, quote of Bob Dylan, you will probably thoroughly enjoy this movie. You will enjoy finding all the associations to Dylan-esque things and following the "plot" along with his "life." If you are are a Bob Dylan fan and enjoy his music and know a little bit about him, you may enjoy this movie. I am a fan BUT much more of a traditionalist when it comes to movie storytelling. This movie is not a bio-pic. This is an abstract compilation of very good actors doing some very good acting with ALMOST no transitional relation to each other.

There is no beginning, middle, or end. However there is somewhat of a conflict resolution which could be seen as an "end." Stylistically, it kinda sucked. Jumping back and forth from grainy black and white, to High Def. black and white. I'm not talking about sequences here either, I'm talking shot for shot back and forth in one of the opening scenes. Almost all of the outdoor shots had terrible color as well. Also it pissed me off that the last shot of the film is Bob Dylan playing the harmonica with a looooong fade to black. What does that have anything to do with anything related to the actual film itself?? Um, I didn't realize this was a tribute to Bob Dylan--did he die? no. is he done with music forever, no? Is he still writing, touring, and his normal shenanigans? YES.

Overall, it was a good concept that I personally think the director/writer/baby daddy over did in some areas and thoroughly lacked in others. It seemed to me he tried too hard to show/present too much and didn't do it well enough. The music was the best part and is why I think this would make a wonderful play. Having it on stage would make it more bare bones and get the viewer more involved. It would also prevent the director from overindulging TOO much and hopefully minimize the pretentiousness.

Also, there was WAY TOO LITTLE Christian Bale on the screen. If you're going put Christian Bale in a movie, f*king use him for all he is WORTH artistically. RARR!!!



He Said:

I agree with HER. I cannot dissect and analyze this movie nearly as well as SHE already did. I consider myself a pretty big fan of Dylan and I do know a decent amount of information about him and know a good amount of his songs. That said, I still found myself lost at times in the movie. All the jumping in and out of the "lives" of Dylan was ultimately too much for me to handle. I too loved the concept of it but the director/writer/obsessive Dylan fan was far too ambiguous and ambitious with this film. I have even seen Don't Look Back a couple times and still was unable to connect all of the Dylanisms. My first thought when the movie opened with the scenic forest/countryside was...Shit, did the movie theater F*ck up the projector? The color was horrible and made my head spin. The end of the movie really confused me as well. I thought the film ended with a motorcycle crash but then dragged on for an unfortunate 15 more minutes. I was saddened walking out of the theater. I really, really wanted to enjoy it but was mixed in my emotions that I found very little to like. My recommendation is to wait until it comes out on DVD and watch Don't Look Back a few times first, then listen to Dylans first album "Bob Dylan" and the subsequent albums until Blood on the Tracks. THEN watch I'm Not There like 3 times, you then might fully understand the movie. However, I don't think I am going to go through that trouble to unlock the mystery of this movie. Dylan is mysterious enough as is, I don't need this movie to beat a dead horse.