FILM: I'm Not There

Yeah, so I kind of got sick of using good old YouTube, to be honest I was starting to miss the pictures - if I were really honest, it doesn't look so nice on my facebook page. LOL.

Judging by the two movie posters I put up, they're obviously about from different categories and are about different stories. What they do have in common is MUSIC. No on can deny that the music has the power to do many things - not anything, but many things. It can make to laugh, cry, shout and hell, it can even make you feel things that you never thought you could. But too often, music drives people to do crazy things or say crazy things.


I'm Not There Christian Bale, Cate Blanchett, Marcus Carl Franklin, Richard Gere, Heath Ledger and Ben Whishaw

Six lives, one person. Tracing the legendary life of singer, Bob Dylan, six characters trace the life of the great singer. Taking the the stories written in his music, Todd Haynes writes and directs a film about what was going on at the time and the spirit of the time. In a world full of injustice and war, the protest movement was strong; but in the midst of the protest cries was a louder call - a call for reason.

I will be honest with you here, it was H.A.R.D. movie to follow. I was confused I didn't know who was who and I just wasn't convinced that all six actors were playing the one person. Though the posters and Bob Dylan, I think there's something more to what they mean. From my understanding here's how they're all connected:

Cate Blanchette and Ben Whishaw are Bob Dylan - Blanchette is the radical artist who portrays a Dylan in a time where he was induced by drugs and alcohol; drowned in the pools of success, media attention and performance stress. Whishaw on the other hand is the poet, the voice behind the music. He acts as the narrator with insights that no one seems to fully comprehend, and at times, that is the beauty of poetry and music - it's ability to be ambiguous, and yet relative.

Christian Bale and Heath Ledger are bound together by Jack Rollins - Bale is Jack Rollins, a folk singer who is beloved by many because of the words of his songs. Bring the truth in the eyes of those who listen and who are willing to know what it feels like to...well, feel - and to feel strongly about something. Ledger takes on the role of an actor who plays that part of Jack Rollins, which gives him his "big break" into the industry. Jack Rollins and Robbie Clark are merely people in the the same world as Dylan - Rollins is doing the same thing and feeling all the same pressures, while Clark is trying to live a separate life to the character he played.

Richard Gere and Marcus Carl Franklin are the elusive connections - Gere is the epitome of a character in one of Dylan's song while Franklin is stuck in a time warp, wishing he was older than he really was. Billy was an outlaw who wanted justice to come to the little people where he lived. Woody simply loved his guitar and singing songs that came from a time before his own, but in some twisted hand of fate, the two stories are wound together by a strum of a guitar.

That's how I see it. And since it was so beautifully confusing and yet utterly satisfying, I'll let YOU decide. Hire it out and see if you agree with me.

Token Line: Yes...it's chaos...clocks...watermelons - it's everything.
Star Rating: 3.5 Stars


Once Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova

This film's take on music is different to that of I'm Not There. It looks at music as a weaver of lives through talent and a mutual liking. It takes one man's sorrow and one woman's sorrow to create a beautiful collaboration of seeing the beauty in pain. It's a simple story really, there's no real plot to it, it's like you're following two people who met on the street and they share their stories with one another and in the end they help each other make ends meet.

Spoiler Alert! They don't end up together in the end, but they do end with people that they believed were right the very first time. What I liked about the ending was not the fact that it wasn't cliche, but rather that fact that it delicately sowed together the lyrics of their songs. Both the man and the woman in this story wrote songs for people who the once loved and in the end, they come to terms with the fact that they still do love them. The film asks, "How often do you find the right person?" - Once.

I think sometimes we're too caught up in have a great ending to films, but once in a while, it's nice to have something that disappoints the obvious and thrills possibility.

Token Line: It's f**king brilliant!
Star Rating: 5 Stars



Next on sL: Christmas Wish List