Starring Christian Bale, Cate Blanchett. Written by Todd Haynes, Owen
Moverman. Directed by Todd Haynes. (14A) 135 min. Opens Nov 30.
Ironic title alert! Not only is Bob Dylan present — in different forms inhabited by different actors — for every scene of I’m Not There, but so is Todd Haynes. It tells us as much, if not more, about its ambitious director as it does the Freewheelin’ B.D.
Loath to walk the biopic line, Haynes has devised an exercise in semiotic pointillism: connect the artfully strewn dots and a bigger picture will emerge. To this end, he’s assembled a disparate cabal of Bobs (including Christian Bale, Richard Gere and an androgynous, Oscar-trolling Cate Blanchett) to trawl through the diffuse miasma of the Dylan mythos.
Haynes and his cast occasionally emerge with pearls. The faux-doc segments that reimagine the subject as an off-the-grid pastor build to a payoff of surpassing beauty. A backwoods fantasia positing him as a rueful Billy the Kid teems with dislocating imagery. But there are also some literal-minded moments — two of which involve Bruce Greenwood as a doubting Mr. Jones type — that suggest an inventive director caught between competing desires: to truly challenge his audience, and also to stroke their intelligence. This technically marvellous film gives off difficult signals, but in the end, it’s a bit too easy. Haynes aims to blow our minds, but his effort lands squarely on the nose.