I'm Not There isn't meant for most audiences. Frankly, it may not even be meant for me. I can't claim to be a fan of Bob Dylan, but this is more through lack of exposure than through any sort of musical preference. And although I'd like to learn more about the man and his music, I'm Not There, director Todd Haynes's artistic profile of Dylan, is probably not my best source for such knowledge. Or is it?

This movie may not be long on factual information, but there's a depth of exploration about its subject here for those who can interpret its creative layers. I'm Not There might be described as the most unconventional biopic ever filmed. Because Haynes wanted to detail a man who has been publicly enigmatic and has shifted personae, he enlisted no less than six actors to play Dylan, each one for a different aspect and/or phase of his personality.

The marriage of this unique approach and the general flow of a biography actually works quite well, for there's a sense of convention within the film after all. Almost all biopics follow a blueprint for their dramatic beats, which often include origin, rise, fall, and a return, much wiser than before. In this view, I'm Not There is really only assigning drastically different styles for each of these sections, with the added flavor of avoiding linearity. All six sections (the press material claims seven sections, with Christian Bale playing two of Dylan's phases) intermingle, but the overall picture adheres to that usual biopic flow.

Fortunately, the level of creativity applied to this venture is delivered with welcome audacity and panache. Since Dylan is a man of changing identities, none of the Bob Dylan characters in the movie are named "Bob Dylan," and all of the sections are given a different cinematic look. The varieties of both portrayals and styles are daring and interesting, from Marcus Carl Franklin's playing Dylan as "Woody," a young black kid with a penchant for tall tales (to represent Dylan's emergence and fascination with Woody Guthrie), filmed in traditional rich colors, to Richard Gere as "Billy" in the backdrop of an old Western, to coincide with the time Dylan had a role in Sam Peckinpah's Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid and to represent the phase where he took an extended break from the public eye.

Ben Whishaw's version of Dylan glues together the other sections and provides commentary both misleading and pithy. Bale's version, as Dylan's rise and, later, his discovery of spirituality, is represented through a talking-heads-interview documentary. Heath Ledger plays the Dylan of home and (broken) family, detailing a marriage to a painter (Charlotte Gainsbourg) during the turbulent times of the Vietnam War. But the juiciest section comes with Cate Blanchett's turn, as the Dylan who visits Britain during one of the most iconic heights of his fame, when he switched from folk to electric rock, hung out with the Beatles and Allen Ginsberg, and was hounded by the media eager to hear personal thoughts on his career he was never ready to dispense. Shot and played in the manner of Federico Fellini's 8½, the section is highlighted by a playful sense of satire and the eerie revelation that, although we're never convinced Blanchett is playing a man (which wasn't the point anyway -- the point was to create an unexpected jolt of energy), the actress somehow looks much closer to Dylan than her fellow actors.

I'm Not There may suffer from a few symptoms which come naturally to a project like this. The sections feel gimmicky at times, and naturally their qualities are so strikingly different that the feeling of unevenness can't be avoided (for as much as I loved the Blanchett section, I felt Gere's section, with its level of perspective perhaps too refined, was tonally out of place). But I love the idea of this concept as well as the way Haynes carried it out without looking back over his shoulder. It's difficult to present a fresh perspective in biopics, and they can often be dull as a result. But I'm Not There always has something to look at, to grasp at, and to think about.

One thought that occurred to me while watching the film was how the representation of Dylan here serves as an analagous representation of our individual multi-faceted growths. Biographical dramas are intrinsically false because their goal involves condensing  someone's life into a clear, focused story. Most lives, however, are an ever-changing mess, hands flailing in the dark, learning lessons along the way that others who've come before have already learned. Dylan purposefully refused to be pigeonholed during his life -- despite his fame, he made his decisions without concern for public opinion, and this is communicated clearly in I'm Not There. Perhaps, then, what makes him wise -- and a legend to so many -- is his inherent knowledge that people shouldn't have to be able to explain themselves, that it's useless to bother. Life is an unpredictable, shapeless and shapeshifting journey, well-represented by Dylan and by the rolling stone that is I'm Not There.

(Released by The Weinstein Company and rated "R" for language, some sexuality and nudity.)

Review also posted at www.windowtothemovies.com.