I'm Not There

The film is about Bob Dylan, and there is no Bob Dylan in it. Six actors play different periods and personas, and none of them carries the name. Todd Haynes directed and explained the approach: the minute you try to grab hold of Dylan he is no longer where he was, he is like a flame. The distribution runs like this. Christian Bale takes the protest years and the born-again phase as Jack Rollins and Pastor John; Cate Blanchett plays the electric Dylan of the mid-sixties as Jude Quinn; Marcus Carl Franklin carries the young Dylan's folk roots under the name Woody Guthrie; Richard Gere plays the outlaw persona as Billy the Kid; Heath Ledger plays Robbie Clark, an actor playing Dylan in a film; and Ben Whishaw is the poet Arthur Rimbaud, interrogated throughout. It premiered at the 64th Venice Film Festival in September 2007. Blanchett won the Volpi Cup for Best Actress and a Golden Globe, and was nominated for an Oscar. Rotten Tomatoes sits at 76 percent. The box office was weak: 11.7 million dollars worldwide against a 20 million budget. Dylan approved the project and said the actors were incredible. Who it is for: viewers tired of biopic conventions and people who listen to Dylan. Who it is not for: anyone who does not know him. The film explains nothing and is hard to follow without the references.