Impressionistic sort-of biopic of Bob Dylan starring six different actors, each representing different aspects of Bob’s personality.
Fragments of Dylan lyrics and interviews are interwoven into the dialogue in a way that’s sometimes cryptic, sometimes obvious.
It’s clearly meant to be as slippery and chameleonic as Dylan himself, but somehow it doesn’t come together. The Cate Blanchett sections are compelling enough that you wish director Todd Haynes had made an entire film with her as Dylan (he directed her again in Carol), but the passages with Richard Gere are baffling and rather dull.
Christian Bale is the only other “Dylan” that works. I was less impressed by Marcus Carl Franklin, Heath Ledger and Ben Whishaw. One other highlight is Julianne Moore as Alice Fabian, a “folksinger and activist” presumably based on Joan Baez.
It confirmed two things about Bob Dylan I already knew:
• He’s complex and difficult to pin down
• He wrote some great songs
But beyond that it told me very little.
