At risk of alienating some of you, I first of all must admit that I was never a big fan of Bob Dylan or 95% of his music, particularly when it was sung...?...by him. This movie, however, did not use ONE song that I recognized! It is my understanding that this is a quasi-biographical movie about him...Right? "Ruminations on the life..." They never used any actual names, so it was mostly a guessing game. I recognized several things:
- Small town origins
- Guitar/harmonica combination
- Overwhelming sense of alienation
- Heavy drug use
- Reluctant publicity conferences
- Big deal when his "real" name was revealed
- Accepted Jesus Christ as his personal savior
- Motorcycle wreck
- GREAT authentic-looking wigs on all the impersonators
I did NOT recognize:
- The little runaway black boy connection
- The frolic with the Beatles
- The wife and two daughters
- The divorce
- Who were all those people supposed to be?
- How was Billy the Kid tied in?
- Where did Henry Kissinger come from?
- Why a frontier town?
Because I have never followed his life, I had no sense of, "Oh! That is supposed to be Joan Baez!" "Hey, that actress represents Carly Simon!" "Oh! I remember when THAT happened!"
I have to agree that Cate Blanchett did the most commendable job of representing him. Christian Bale WAS him, and Heath Ledger had the awkward marriage/divorce segments. One fellow I didn't recognize at all, but I looked him up and he is another UK actor by the name of Ben Whishaw. Marcus Carl Franklin plays the child and Kris Kristofferson never actually appears, he does the voiceover. Richard Gere was pretty much wasted...What WAS that frontier town all about? The 100% thru-line was the chain smoking. I haven't seen an American movie made in the past two decades with so much cigarette smoke. I was sitting conveniently near the exit and had to fight with myself to keep from availing myself of it for at least the last 2/3 of the movie. It became an endurance test.
I realize the gentle nuances of my opinion may be too subtle...let me come right out and say it: I did NOT like this movie...and that puts me in direct opposition to most of the critics in this country who are practically wetting themselves over it!
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