If you're going into this one hoping for the Dylan equivalent of Walk The Line or Ray, you're likely to be disappointed. For Todd Haynes' take on Dylan's life and legacy is not a linear narrative, rather an impressionistic pastiche of the artist and the 60s - portrayed by 5 actors playing characters (none of them named Bob Dylan) who portray different aspects and incarnations of the revered singer/songwriter's life.

What the film succeeds in creating is the feelings, the tumult and the zeitgeist as it is a changin'. Interestingly the only actor who really bears any real resemblance to Bob is Cate Blanchette who plays the icon in his most androgynous looking period before and after his imfamous electric performance at the Newport Folk Festival. Haynes makes a number of fascinating observations about what it meant to be someone as Iconic and yet often derided as Dylan. There is a scene where Blanchette is frollicking about on the grass with the Beatles, stoned and obviously comforted by being part of a group - yet right away the surreal moment ends, the Beatles are chased off by hordes of screaming girls and Bob turns to face his accusers and critics all alone. One is left to surmise that perhaps the reason for Dylans many guizes was a result of his discomfiture at being alone in the center of the cyclone. Blanchette's character also engages in a love/hate relationship with a British socialite played by Michelle Williams. I'm not sure if this women represents an individual or a collective, but the relationship turns ever more bitter, showing Dylan at his most caustic and dark. Hayne's more than intimates that this scenario is the inspiration behind "Like a Rolling Stone."

All of the various performances were fascinating, but, though he logged the least screen-time, I liked Christian Bale's take on the young Freewheelin' troubadour phase, which he plays with a bit of a James Dean aire. His incarnation was the most musical of the lot, and though the film is overlayed with many of Dylan's greatest work, I was disappointed that there wasn't more performance. Heath Ledger is also strong playing the film acting and domestic side of the man. The hauntingly beautiful french actress Charlotte Gainsbourg plays his wife and mother of his children. If Dylan was somewhat mysogynistic I was not aware of it, but there was one drawn out scene in which Haynes' seemed rather intent upon leaving the audience with that impression?

Ben Whishaw, a great young British actor, plays a younger version of the man always against a white backdrop defending his work as eloquently and succinctly as possible for someone of his years with a mind constantly aramble. And Richard Gere is pretty much just Richard Gere in the role of Billy the Kid - an "anybody's guess" amalgam of Dylan's miserable experience acting in and scoring the Sam Peckinpah film Pat Garret and Billy the Kid, and his latter gruff, snaggle tooth aged personae.

As for the supporting cast, Julianne Moore was serviceable as the Joan Baez character, Gainsbourg is superb, David Cross is perfect as Allen Ginsberg, but the most piercing performance comes courtesy of Bruce Greenwood who plays a critic/pundit named Keenan Jones who becomes something of the archetypical anti-bob - always popping up to point out Dylan's shortcomings or to further some bit of devilry. (Coincidentally his performance about a different National Treasure, as the President of the U.S. was the best thing about that film).

Haynes introduces Woody Guthrie as a 12 year old black boy (Marcus Carl Franklin) and his are the most entertaining musical sequences - particularly one on a porch with the richest of the rich Richie Havens singing along. Haynes labors to make a significant connection between Guthrie and Dylan, Dylan sits at Guthrie's deathbed in one scene and then toward the end as a jail escapee Billy The Kid he hops a train to freedom where he digs around frantically until he finds Guthrie's famous guitar case buried under the detritus of time. Voiced over this scene we get some of the more interesting food for thought as Dylan's words are narrated by Kris Kristofferson. The film ends with a very tight close-up of the real Dylan working his way lovingly up and down the harmonica.

I was going to point out that the film will appeal much more to fans than the general movie goer, but goodness, who isn't a fan of Dylan?