A very original/unusual take on the biopic. The many past and possible lives of Bob Dylan, were he a few (five? can’t remember exactly) different people. Some of it was very entertaining and well done, other bits I could have done without. Similar to, say, Being John Malkovich, you’re either going to be able to go with it or you’re not.

Thought Cate Blanchett, Heath Ledger and Christian Bale were all excellent. Blanchett and Bales’s sections were some of the most factually-based bits; there were moments in Blanchett’s that were straight out of filmed Dylan interviews I’ve even seen. (Michelle Williams’ bit part was really, really nicely done and Charlotte Gainsbourg was excellent as well.) But they could have left out the entire Richard Gere segment and I would have been fine with that (except for missing a great cover) – that imagined life just did nothing for me. More of a fairytale aspect going on there. And I didn’t find the segment with the little boy that engaging either.

Enjoyed the music, enjoyed a lot of it. Didn’t love it. But certainly worth seeing. Not going to see many things like it.

Really good. Maybe not Oscar winning levels of accomplishment, but certainly respectable, compelling filmmaking. Kudos to you, Ben Affleck, I’m pretty impressed. There was only one thing I would consider a directorial gaffe / and it was perhaps a difficult moment of filming? I don’t know, but only one moment where I thought “That’s not right.” I’ll give you one or two (or maybe four depending) of those and still consider it a good flick.

Casey Affleck = also very impressive here. As I felt with Leo in “The Departed”, this is the movie where Casey really became sexy to me. In the past = attractive but in a kinda skeevy way. In this movie = H-O-T, hot. Really liked watching him play this role, lots of subtle moral struggles. He did a great job.

Also nice bits by Ed Harris and Amy Madigan.

Although here is the conversation as I imagine it: Ed (says to Ben): “Hey, Ben, yeah I’ll be in your movie but only if you have a part for my wife too. And here’s the deal, you have to make me look super, super hot and older man sexy, but you have to make her look as crappy, old and bedraggled as possible. Does that work for you? Yeah? OK then! We’ll do it!” (Yes, her part requires that she be somewhat more bedraggled than his does…but still…it was a bit…noticeable.)

I had high expectations for this movie and I was glad to not be disappointed. That said, the first 20 minutes or so (out of almost three hours) were not really what I was expecting. Story had some unusual twists.

Denzel and Russell were both really strong, although both looked crappier physically than I’ve seen them look in a while. There was one scene in which Denzel looked so bloated and slackjawed and I thought “oh are they going to make his character go all crazy and loose cannon now? To match how he’s falling apart physically?” But he seemed to recover a bit from that. There are TONS of other “oh oh I know that guy, what’s he been in?” actors in this. The police chief (?) from Monk. Josh Brolin (Man, I can’t stand that guy. And fortunately, in this movie, he plays someone to hate so my natural feelings weren’t fighting the storyline). “Stringer Bell” (yay!). This scrawny dude who was, I believe, the male lead in that movie everyone on earth loved (EXCEPT ME!!) “Me and You and Everyone We Know”. A dude who recently was on an episode of K-Ville. A small role knocked out of the park by Cuba Gooding Jr. and an even smaller part played by Common.

It was long and sprawling and really followed two distinct storylines (led by their respective stars) that ran parallel but didn’t truly overlap until about the last five minutes. It was violent and scrappy and sometimes offensive (in the spirit of its time). And I really (really) liked it.

I really didn’t fall for this movie as much as I thought I might after I read Jen’s reaction.
I did think George Clooney and Tom Wilkinson were great. Sydney Pollack’s character pissed me off just as much as he was supposed to. Tilda Swinton was good although I felt her “accent” slipped a few times (into frigid English bitch rather than frigid American).
But…I felt like it was an excellently acted/directed movie of something that’s been done before. So I wasn’t wowed. If you’re going to do a movie on corporate malfeasance, I think there’s a lot more to choose from these days than the same old/same old chemicals cause cancer role, and things that are more pressing/more topical (how about the government continuing to handout defense contracts to companies which were the ones already “supplying” the troops with inadequate supplies, non bullet proof “armored” cars, etc.).
Not only has the chemical angle been done before (going all the way back to Silkwood! and on through Erin Brockovich), along with the “those companies kill people who get in their way”, but also the sense of a whistle-blower (The Insider, among others).
So while I thought the performances were excellent, I didn’t think the movie really took a reach. I didn’t think it went somewhere that blew my mind, or should be award winning. (My mom called it “very competent and enjoyable.”)
But Jen loved it. So you might. And the friend that went with me came out of the theater saying “Wow, that was awesome!” (She felt this movie did some “new” spins on an old subject, say, the scenes of Tilda Swinton spreading out her clothes in the hotel rooms…)
Not so much, to me.