What the hell is this movie about. Note that that’s a statement, not a question, because I am just completely bewildered and confused about it right now. If you go into this movie expecting a biopic, you’ll be disappointed. I wasn’t expecting that in the slightest and was still completely disappointed. This movie is ridiculously all over the place and Haynes’ scattered approach to the “story” as it were is an absolutely huge hindrance to the film.
Half the problem is that he has too many story lines and the other half of the problem is that he has no idea what kind of film he wants this to be. I know that if we’re looking at Dylan as a 20th century schizoid man that this kind of narrative fracture is only natural and that we shouldn’t expect any sort of consistency from story to story or style to style, but you know what? There’s only so much disconnect an audience can take before feeling completely alienated by the director.
There are things that don’t work and they don’t work in a huge way. The Christian Bale storyline is done in sort of a less melodramatic “Behind The Music” type style: we hear the people he’s left in his wake talking about him in the past tense and we only get to see him in what are perceived to be stock clips of the rising star that are usually dragged out in moments of remembrance like this. Haynes tries to give it a slightly bittersweet tone, except it just comes off as being a slight parody. It made me feel really awkward, especially since much of the audience would be laughing as Julianne Moore in her Joan Baez role would be ruminating on young Jack Rollins (as Dylan is referred to in these segments), when it was clear there was nothing funny about anything she was saying. It’s like how Spinal Tap would feel if they weren’t being deliberately ironic.
Richard Gere’s segment is what happens when someone mistakenly thinks Bob Dylan starred in Big Fish. I’m serious. Spectre is really great! I just can’t even begin to guess the symbolism or metaphor or mythology present in those scenes. I know I hate being hit over the head with obvious metaphors, but creating one so dense and so inaccessible just leaves me feeling completely shut off from the film. Every time he came on screen, I just wanted it to be over.
And the thing was? IT WOULD NOT END. It just kept going and going and going. I don’t do a lot of creative writing, but in the past when I’ve written short stories I have never, ever had any clue how to end them. My endings were always sort of abrupt and odd and clearly the work of someone who had no idea what she was doing. This film feels the same way: there are usually narrative and/or visual cues that let the audience know the film is approaching its end and this one just did not have any. I kept thinking it would end and it didn’t. The film opens with Bob Dylan post- motorcycle accident and so it felt natural that when we saw him driving across the screen and hearing the awful crash, the film would have come full circle and ended. But it didn’t. Then Cate Blanchett gives a monologue and ends by having an intense stare down with the camera, which also would have provided a satisfying ending. But it kept going. I wanted to die.
That said, there were lots of bits that I did like. For one, the music. Dylan writes some pretty beautiful, heartbreaking, gut-wrenching songs and it’s so easy to forget that. I thought they picked a nice balance of smaller songs of his that isn’t of the Greatst Hits variety; they played “Like A Rolling Stone” over the closing credits, but I think that had more to do with the fact that you can’t do a Dylan biopic without including it than because it was terribly vital to the film (hence why it’s in the credits and not the film itself). There were a couple of interesting covers as well; I particularly enjoyed the version of “Tombstone Blues” done by Kid!Dylan and Richie Havens (who was completely random).
Christian Bale was also pretty good in this. He did well in managing to convey Dylan’s weirdo shy, hunched, emotionally guarded prophet troubadour persona and it was rather hysterical to see him become the born-again Dylan later on in the film. I mentioned earlier that his segments were done in a mockumentary style without having any actual mock to it, and as part of this they re-imagined several classic Dylan album covers with Christian Bale’s face on them instead and with the names of the album changed slightly, as if they fed “Freewheelin’” into some sort of synonym generator to come up with a new title. I’m wondering if he did his own singing for this. I kind of love him.
I am saving the best for last. Cate. Cate, Cate, Cate, Cate, Cate. CATE. I have never had a favourite actress before; there are lots of actresses I like, and the K/Cates are at the top of the list. But now? Now I have decided that Cate is indeed my favourite. Her segment was the only one that emerged anywhere near fully formed and it was like the rest of the movie was padding to get it to feature length; this should seriously be re-edited as a short film, cutting out all the complete waste and sticking to what’s good. The problem with slicing Dylan’s persona into individual facets for different actors to play is that everyone comes off one-dimensional; Cate!Dylan is the only one who managed to squeeze some semblance of genuine humanity out of her slice. She’s at once belligerent and feisty and irritated while simultaneously being world-weary and goofy and ridiculously genuine. You always hear about how Dylan was this methedrine-addled, sharp-tongued asshole circa 1965 but she manages to play him with near sympathy. This is all in addition to her ridiculously uncanny resemblance to Dylan, down to his physical mannerisms and speech patterns. Take note, Hayden Christensen, this woman obviously took the time to watch Dont Look Back before trying to take on the insurmountable task of portraying our dear Mr. Zimmerman. I just have so much love for her in this. If you can stand to watch this movie, it would be worth it if only for her performance.
I also think the idea of Cate Blanchett going electric at the Newport Folk Festival is one of the greatest things I’ve ever seen on screen, ever.
The other thing about Cate’s segment is that she gets the best supporting characters to play off of. David Cross is hysterical as Allen Ginsberg. The Beatles make a brief and hilarious appearance when everyone is wondering where the hell Dylan is and the camera cuts to a small hill that he and the Beatles are rolling down for no apparent reason. The best part is that both The Beatles and Dylan are dubbed in that scene to sound like squirrels, which is freaking hysterical, it’s like they’re little kids who have found a new best friend. Very funny stuff. The only genuinely funny stuff in the movie, come to think of it.
I’m a little disappointed that Cate wasn’t at the movie, to be honest, since it’s the North American premiere and she was in town for Elizabeth: The Golden Age on Sunday, but whatever. Todd Haynes was here and he was doing a Q&A afterwards, but I skipped it. I would have stayed regardless of how I felt about the film because a director Q&A would have been fun, but I had a bus to catch.