I'm Not There

**** Stars

I'm Not There is an exhilarating, appropriately exhausting trip of enigmatic existence. What I didn't understand tested me and what I understood moved me. Director Todd Haynes chronicles Bob Dylan's path of life through six different actors with no direction home.

Christian Bale: Jack Rollins
Cate Blanchett: Jude Quinn
Heath Ledger: Robbie Clark
Richard Gere: Billy the Kid
Marcus Carl Franklin: Woody Guthrie
Ben Whishaw: Arthur Rimbaud

ALL ARE BOB DYLAN. All six play different aspects of one of the most influential musicians in history. From his fictional childhood (Franklin) to the stages of adulthood (Whishaw), to activating in politics (Bale), to the progression of his own sounds (Blanchett), to acting in a movie within a movie (Ledger), and to his post-motorcycle accident stage (Gere), this is a daring attempt of a biography. Unlike Ray or Walk the Line, Haynes is not focusing on a straight forward telling. Because did Dylan really lead a straight forward life? Hell no. His life was exactly how I'm Not There is displayed; full of hallucinations, heartbreak, love, songs that redefined an era, and an examination of pop culture inside one man's mind. It’s supposed to confuse you, baffle you, and give you no explanation as to why these characters are connected. Why is Dylan's child played by an African American? Maybe because he posed as someone else as a child. Maybe he thought that's who he was. Maybe the director has the balls to really make your head trip.

Blanchett is mind-blowing. Maybe she doesn't have the voice box to match Dylan's, but you forget it's Blanchett (one of the beautiful actresses in the world) the second she walks on and ignites the screen. If she hadn't already been in the Oscar spotlight for the past few years, this once again would have been her year to take home the statue. She and the collaboration of the five other actors in this film give us something we have never seen before. I'm Not There tests the mind and soul that few films this year ever could.