Pun Salad

I'm not a major Bob Dylan fan, but I've got a bunch of his songs on my iPod, and his memoir is probably one of the few in the genre that's actually worth reading. But …

Upfront, this movie claims to be "inspired by the music and many lives of Bob Dylan." And they take that "many lives" thing seriously: we follow six disparate characters (none named "Bob Dylan") played by six different actors (including, notably, Cate Blanchett). They have various adventures, contending with wives, the media, the man, fickle fans, beatnik poets, Jesus, and runaway dogs. The movie jumps between these threads unpredictably.

I found the absurd premise and loopy dialogue agreeable at first, and it was fun to pick out the little bits of Dylan trivia scattered throughout like breadcrumbs. But there's not much more than that: the movie doesn't go anywhere, tie anything together, or offer much illumination. The gimmicks get tired after about an hour, and it teeters over into "pretentious crap" territory.

And now I'm off to the iTunes store to pick up "Simple Twist of Fate." That's a great song.