A stylishly complicated pseudo-biopic that is extremely uneven. I'm enough of a Bob Dylan buff to catch the many references and to appreciate the nuances in the various Dylanesque performances. I'm certain that non-Dylan experts would find this about as comprehensible as a vintage Dylan soliloquy.
No amount of Dylan expertise can quite hide the fact that this is a confusing mess. The early scenes with the Woody boy are embarrassingly bad, and the Richard Gere scenes seem like they should be in a different movie. Ledger's characterization also seems out of place. Both Bale and Moore seem to be taking this as parody.
Blanchett clearly steals the show and salvages the film to some degree. She deserved her Oscar nomination, and perhaps even a bit more, since she was better than Swinton was in Michael Clayton (7). Or perhaps, more accurately, both deserved nominations and no statue, and the other nominees deserved neither.
Scorsese's documentary, No Direction Home (8), is a far better film, but I give Haynes some credit for being ambitiously creative. He put together a great soundtrack, with both Dylan and others singing. And the film has some interesting cinematography, including many striking black and white sequences. A 6 rating.
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