I'm Not There

Another recent flick, and another take on 60s music icons. But it couldn't be farther from Across the Universe. I had heard a lot about this movie even before it came out, and I was wanting to see it for a while after, especially after all the awards and nominations it got. I think knowing in advance that Cate Blanchet was nominated for an Oscar for her role may have been a bad thing. Maybe I was just expecting more, and I was expecting to be so into her performance that I would forget it was a woman playing a man, but I don't think she was the strongest of the six. It's already an uphill battle when you know the actress going in, and you know its not a man. I think I would have preferred if they had Blanchet actually play a female version of Dylan. It's not as if the film is trying to be realistic, they have an eleven year old black child playing him as well. Her section was one of the more interesting ones, as you can never get a handle on the character, in the sense that you don't know his goals, history or even a sense of emotion. But for some reason it works. I think its because she plays it so consistently, and its always entertaining, especially the interviews. It's played very similar to the Beatles interviews in A Hard Days Night, just with a little less aim at comedy. 

Personally I think the strongest actor in the movie was Heath Ledger. From what I can remember, I think its the first time I've ever seen him in a movie, and checking out his IMDB page, I think Dark Knight will be the last time I see him. I think this section is terribly underserved in the movie, and isn't helped by the character Alice, who is one of the weakest performances in the film. The chick essentially has two emotions; lust and utter annoyance. She seems enthralled with Robbie Clark when she meets him, but it doesn't seem like long after she flips the switch. and can't stand him, and seems to be constantly disgusted with him. Yet she stays with him, and ends up having two kids with him, and then gets divorced. There are obvious reasons for her to grow apart from him, given his infidelity, his brutal honesty and he certainly doesn't lack in ego. Ledger plays it perfectly, and still seems content with their relationship through it all.

My next favourite section was Jack Rollins, played by Christian Bale. I'm always astounded how many accents this guy can pull off so naturally, and the only disappointment I think in this part was that Bale didn't do his own vocals for the songs, and it was a little too obvious.

Richard Gere's section as a Billy the Kid character was better than I expected, but it wasn't the most interesting, and it wasn't a challenge for Gere. I've never been a fan of Gere as an actor, as he seems to play the same character every time, typically in awful romantic comedies. But his character was pretty simple, and was overshadowed by the screwball town he's hidden in.

I think the section that holds the movie together is the poet, Arthur. The only issue I had with it was where and how it was spliced in. There is a section about two thirds into the movie that to me had a huge impact, and as I heard it I thought it would have been a perfect ending. He states there are seven rules of going into hiding, the final being "And finlly seven, never create anything, it will be misinterpreted, it will chain you and follow you for the rest of your life. " To me that seems like a perfect bookend for the stories, as it sums up a central theme in all six sections, and therefore must have been a significant judgement of Dylan's real life. Maybe they could have intercut the seven rules one at a time on between scenes, but I just sat back and wished the movie had ended on that line.

In terms of the style of the movie, I really liked it. I enjoyed that the separate characters were not shot in the same style. Jack Rollins' section was done completely documentary style through interviews and news reports. Arthur's section after about twenty seconds remained the exact same shot for the remainder of the film, in very grainy black and white stock, as if it was a court proceeding or interrogation. Blanchet's stuff was very Hard Days Night in style, with a lot of closeups, and like I mentioned, interviews, and all in black and white. For Gere, Ledger and the black kid, they were all in colour, but obviously in different worlds. I was very impressed on the ability of Haynes to match the styles of shooting to the characters and the story. 

All in all, another great film. Tough to get a handle on at some points, especially when you're not very familiar with Dylan's music or his life, but still very engaging.