“I’m Not There,” review by Susan Granger

If you’ve ever been curious about experimental cinema, this is it.

Inspired by the tumultuous life and music of Bob Dylan, it’s a kaleidoscopic, non-linear meditation with little coherence. Eccentric Dylan, called by six different names, is played by six different actors – of different races and genders – each representing a phase in his chaotic life.

Dylan’s childhood is embodied by an 11 year-old African-American runaway (Marcus Carl Franklin) calling himself ‘Woody Guthrie’ in homage to the legendary musician. Riding in railroad box-cars with hoboes, he endears himself to them – and others – playing guitar.

Growing up, he becomes cryptic poet Arthur Rimbaud (Ben Wishaw) and Jack (Christian Bale), a ‘protest’ singer in Greenwich Village, whose lover is activist/folksinger Alice Fabian (Julianne Moore); Jack re-appears later as born-again Pastor John.

Then there’s Robbie (Heath Ledger), a New York actor who’s in love with French painter Claire (Charlotte Gainsbourg). When success overwhelms, he morphs into swaggering, drugged-out Jude Quinn (Cate Blanchett) and eventually becomes a reclusive outlaw (Richard Gere).

Writer/director Todd Haynes (“Far From Heaven”), working with writer Oren Kaufman, assumes a knowledge of Dylan that some audience members may lack, so I suspect it will appeal, primarily, to Dylan devotees.

Cate Blanchett’s androgynous performance is most memorable; ironically, she’s the only one who truly captures Dylan’s mannerisms. And Bruce Greenwood scores as an exasperated British journalist voicing my exact thoughts: “I’m not sure I follow.”

The photography and editing are commendable and the actors mainly lip-sync Dylan’s songs, so the soundtrack incorporates the work many musicians. Only at the conclusion does one glimpse the real Dylan on the harmonica. On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, “I’m Not There” is a bizarre, discordant, surreal 6 – definitely not a mainstream movie.