I’m Not There
“Never look at yourself.”
At first I thought this might just be like the cinematic equivalent of Tori Amos’ “American Doll Posse” – a great concept but, by its very nature, doomed to be scatterbrained. Either that or something as surprisingly coherent as Palindromes. Certainly this is yet another 2007 movie – like Zodiac, American Gangster, 3:10 to Yuma – whose technical perfection far outweighs any real level of connection, at least for most of its duration … and while some seem quite capable of excusing such an absence, it’s a huge problem in my eyes if a film that should get inside you fails completely to do so.
I was kind of “raised”, and I think with good reason, to believe that if the first thing you find yourself mentioning of a movie is how good it looks, then it’s really not a good movie (for the record, I’m sure I’m guilty elsewhere on this site of exceptions to that rule, but it’s still a good rule). I just don’t think I got anything out of this that I haven’t got already, and couldn’t get again more easily, out of the music itself, the poetry in “Tarantula”, the “Chronicles” book, the Scorsese doc ... sure, they recreate the “Judas” moment and other stuff flawlessly … but is it essential as I find the other works? I’m not so sure.
There’s something about it that’s pretty much inherent in the title – it’s a portrait of an artist that, like that guy at the end of Citizen Kane, just about shrugs its shoulders and admits that it really can’t put a finger on him, that no man can be contained within a word, a soundbite, even a 2 hour ode such as this. I’ll admit that in the last 30 minutes I was completely captivated – in the end it does finally start to merge into something resembling a whole … so it’s also yet another movie for which a second viewing will be essential and could easily change everything I’ve written above. Cate Blanchett is as good as everybody is saying; I really liked Christian Bale’s portrayal, too; and the rest of the cast are about as appealing. Of course, the music rocks. But at this point, I’m almost afraid to say, it’s the visuals that stand out above all else.