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07/04/2008

I’m Not There – ambitious, artful, enjoyable, stimulating

I hadn’t really fancied I’m Not There - probably as a reaction to the incessant hype greeting the film’s release. And half an hour into yesterday’s screening at my local art-house cinema, I felt vindicated.

Harrumph!

Woody, the tiresome, precocious young black version of Dylan, had me gritting my teeth. Hollywood does it again, I was thinking - manages to turn gold into lead. Why was I wasting my time in a cinema on a fine spring Sunday?

Then some new characters were introduced – notably Rimbaud and Ms Blanchett – and I’m Not There took wing and then soared. The next 90 minutes was riveting.

Ideas were bursting from the screen so quickly that you had to concentrate hard to pick up the references, catch the quotations.

But it was much more than a sterile intellectual exercise – it was emotionally engaging, too. You were regularly moved by the script and the performances. The chaos of something approaching Dylan’s world was beautifully evoked. And the use of his music was spellbinding.

I’m Not There is not, as I had suspected, an exploitation biopic. No, it’s a major movie in its own right, an artful rumination on Dylan’s genius, and an appropriately masterful contribution to our perception of who he really is (or might be).

I’ll be buying the DVD, partly to max on the enjoyment, partly to try unravelling the complexities of a richly textured, ambitious piece of art.

If you haven’t yet seen I’m Not There, you’re in for a treat – it’s very enjoyable, endlessly stimulating.



Gerry Smith

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