A Complete Unknown: Movie Review

Cast: Timothee Chalamet, Elle Fanning, Edward Norton, Scoot McNairy, Monica Barbaro, Boyd Holbrook

Director: James Mangold

Perhaps it's best to not go to A Complete Unknown expecting an immersive and in-depth examination of Bob Dylan and what exactly made him tick.

In fact, Logan director James Mangold's film is more interested in those who orbit around the mumbling maestro and the impact his gravity had upon them. It's an intriguing compromise for a film that emotionally feels like it has a few beats missing.

Beginning in 1961, it tells the story of a young Bob Dylan (a mumbling and eyes-half-closed Chalamet) heading to New York City to see his hospitalised hero Woody Guthrie (McNairy, in a near mute role).

Finding fellow musician and evangelical folk lover Pete Seeger (Norton, in a warm, humane turn that makes you wish there were more of him) at the hospital caring for Guthrie, the pair strike up a friendship, and Seeger mentors Dylan into the local folk scene.

Success comes quickly for Dylan thanks to a combination of talent and turbulent times that crystallise his appeal. But soon Dylan's tempestuous edges come out and he longs to move away from the folk music that he feels has defined him but is also holding him back.

Based on the 2015 book Dylan Goes Electric! from Elijah Wald, there's much to be said for the cast's ability to inhabit the roles - rather than simply imitate them. But the film's script at times demands too many narrative jumps and doesn't really get into the core of Dylan himself - an idea that perhaps was never on the table. 

However, the film's less interested and labels Dylan unapologetically "an asshole" thanks to character assessments and assassinations. It's perhaps welcome that he remains an enigma and that a different film about Dylan still demands to be made.

Equally, Elle Fanning's turn as the apparent first love of his life in New York initially promises to make her more of a presence in proceedings, before dimming her light and casting her more as a shrew and an emotionally rejected presence.

Yet what A Complete Unknown does bring to the table is a chance to enliven Dylan's music. Perhaps if more had been thrown into the conflict he faced over choosing to go electric instead of staying with folk rather than making him seem like a sullen, stroppy, floppy-haired kid, then Mangold's movie would have been excellent fare. As a result, Chalamet gets the space to breathe and the chance to shamble from one iconic moment to the next - but as no doubt the Oscars come knocking, there's no denying his on-screen presence and commitment.

As it is, it's perfectly enjoyable, at times, utterly electrifying with music sequences by all the main talent leaping from the big screen - even if the aloof and uncertain nature of parts of the story threatens to derail Dylan's appeal and legacy.