Bob Dylan may well be a great poet - but he can't sing...and he certainly can't act. Bob sleeps through this film with an expression that remains the same no matter what he's doing. He can be fighting, loving, being invaded by men with guns...going down for something he didn't do, and he still just stands there. Emotionless. Fans of his, and no doubt the man himself, will say that he's playing an emotionless character, but at the end of the day; this isn't acting, it's just appearing in a film. It's a real shame that Bob is the star because when the star can't act, there's going to be problems. He could have gotten away with a (small) support turn, or even just singing his songs; but people that cant act shouldn't be given a starring role. It's as simple as that. A whole host of big names have been hired to try and hide Dylan's awful acting, however, and the list includes the likes of Jeff Bridges, Penélope Cruz, John Goodman, Mickey Rourke, Jessica Lange, Luke Wilson, Ed Harris, Val Kilmer, Chris Penn, Giovanni Ribisi, Cheech Martin and even Christian Slater joins the...ahem, fun. But sadly, not a single one of these big names can save this mess.
I was surprised to find that this crap was co-written by Bob Dylan himself. Judging by his lyric writing abilities, I always had Bob down as a wise man; but according to his work here, he's a self-indulgent egomaniac. The film is really just a poor excuse to show Dylan performing his songs, and far too much of the running time is spent watching Bob perform. The rest of the film is spent watching Bob stand around while the big names try and make the scenes interesting. Watching Bob clutter up the scenes is really funny at first, but it soon gets boring and the messy plot with it's even messier message doesn't help the proceedings at all. It's not even like you can ignore the lead and just enjoy the plot because that's terrible as well. In fact, the only positive element of this film that I can think of is Sertab Erener's cover of Bob Dylan's "One More Cup of Coffee", which isn't a far cry away from being as good as The White Stripes' version. The only reason I watched this film was because it was late and there was nothing else on. If I could have turned it over, I would and if you haven't got a real good reason, like that one, you really shouldn't be watching this film.
I was surprised to find that this crap was co-written by Bob Dylan himself. Judging by his lyric writing abilities, I always had Bob down as a wise man; but according to his work here, he's a self-indulgent egomaniac. The film is really just a poor excuse to show Dylan performing his songs, and far too much of the running time is spent watching Bob perform. The rest of the film is spent watching Bob stand around while the big names try and make the scenes interesting. Watching Bob clutter up the scenes is really funny at first, but it soon gets boring and the messy plot with it's even messier message doesn't help the proceedings at all. It's not even like you can ignore the lead and just enjoy the plot because that's terrible as well. In fact, the only positive element of this film that I can think of is Sertab Erener's cover of Bob Dylan's "One More Cup of Coffee", which isn't a far cry away from being as good as The White Stripes' version. The only reason I watched this film was because it was late and there was nothing else on. If I could have turned it over, I would and if you haven't got a real good reason, like that one, you really shouldn't be watching this film.