In an alley behind Montreal's Musee des Beaux Arts, Christian Bale leans against a wall that's plastered with artfully distressed music posters; he's posing for a mock album cover. Heath Ledger and Charlotte Gainsbourg sit on a low wall across the street, smoking cigarettes. Julianne Moore emerges from a minivan balancing a plateful of salad; she's just had a wig fitting, and sports the hair — long, straight, brown, middle-parted — of mid-1960's Joan Baez.

Though all the actors are shooting the same film — I'm Not There, written and directed by Todd Haynes (Safe, Far From Heaven) — it's appropriate that they're intensely engaged in separate pursuits. I'm Not There is nominally the story of Bob Dylan's rise to and rejection of fame, but it's a rarified, fractured biopic: Some of the events depicted come from Dylan's life, while others are metaphorical; six different actors play aspects of his character, and none of them are called Bob … READ MORE