Gere is only one of six different actors who take on varying personifications of Dylan’s life and works in this lengthy movie that can’t quite qualify as a biopic. Each actor tackles a unique perception of Dylan, or a period of Dylan’s life, from his early rise as a harbinger of the folk moment (Christian Bale) to his enigmatic, late 60s, “scenester” persona (Cate Blanchett).
There are other manifestations as well, some that will strike a chord with anyone who has ever heard a Dylan song, and others that will only have meaning for diehard, obsessive fans. Marcus Carl Franklin gives a scene-stealing turn as an11-year-old vagabond who portrays Dylan’s famously elusive past (even acting out some stories the songwriter made up for press interviews). Richard Gere plays a more abstract version of Dylan, a personification of the imagination that produced some of his more rootsy, Americana songs. Heath Ledger, on the other hand, plays the Dylan most firmly rooted in reality- an American superstar who falls in love, starts a family, and watches it all fall apart.
Each different scenario, or section of Dylan’s personality is given a different name, a different set of Dylan characteristics, a different group of supporting characters and even a different shooting style (Blanchett’s Dylan is shot only in black and white, while Gere’s segment is the most abstract, surreal of the group).
And each segment is as incomparably good as the next.
Each actor (notably Cate Blanchett, as the only female to tackle a Dylan persona) absolutely disappears into his or her role, into a particular aspect of Dylan, and yet each manages to remain as elusive from the audience as the real life icon.
The movie will disappoint anyone who turns up looking for concrete answers into Dylan’s life, or definite meanings behind his songs and actions. Instead of explaining Dylan, the movie addresses what it is Dylan meant (and still means) to the public- why it is we need those answers, and why we’ll never get them. The different vignettes are all beautiful in their own way, like intertwining versions of a complex life, and yet by the end of the movie they reveal only how impossible it is to capture just one faction of an individual’s life, let a lone an individual in his entirety.
Am I sounding a little too abstract? Well, if you plan on going to see this movie with the intent to enjoy it, you should get used to it. There are no answers here, there is no neat and tidy ending (in fact, there is no ending at all, unless there are six mini-endings). This movie won’t provide those things. What it will provide is beautiful cinematography, wonderful acting, and a soundtrack fit for Dylan himself.
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