They seek him here, they seek him there...

Saw the new Dylan biopic, "I'm Not There" in which assorted actors (and one actress) play archetypal figures meant to represent some of the personas Dylan has put on over the years. They range from a young (11ish) black child on the Hobo Highway who calls himself "Woody Guthrie" (and carries a guitar in a case that has "This Machine Kills Fascists" on it) to the sunglassed snarky Dylan-does-London (the "Don't Look Back" guy) to an aged outlaw on the run living in a town called "Riddle" (birthplace of the black kid) where the residents look like outtakes from the cover shots for "Basement Tapes" (and some have names from the tunes on that album, like Henry and Homer).

It's an overloaded messy romp of a film, including a soundtrack that includes Dylan singing his own songs, other people singing Dylan songs (and they're never as good as he is), and lots of instrumental snippets of songs (sometimes with corresponding visuals). There are references within references; a Dylanologist (anyone remember A.J. Weberman?) will love puzzling them all out when this hits DVD.

High points? Cate Blanchett (yep, that's her in the photo), who plays the highly drugged and amazingly productive Dylan of the mid-60's ("Bringing It All Back Home", "Highway 61 Revisited", "Blonde On Blonde"), is dead-on, and gets the character down pat. The way she talks, the way she moves, the way she does (and does not) react - a perfect invocation of that memory-Dylan. If she doesn't get a supporting Oscar nod, I'll be very surprised. The scenes with the black kid are also pretty good, and evocative of Dylan's gifts for self-invention.

Other parts don't work as well. Combining Suze Rotolo and Sarah Lowndes into one love object is one of those misplays; the weak covers on the soundtrack is another - not enough inventiveness to cover up the blandness of the non-Dylan vocals. There are good Dylan covers (Manfred Mann's "Mighty Quinn", the Band's "When I Paint My Masterpiece", Leon Russell's "Hollis Brown", even Joan Baez' "I Shall Be Released" among plenty of others), but this movie doesn't provide any new ones worth picking up.

Who should see it? Dylan fans, of course, and fans of directors who try to stretch the medium and provide moviegoers with a unique experience. It's an interesting approach to a film bio of a very complex character, and even where it fails, it's not for lack of nerve. Definitely worth a viewing.