An experimental biographical film, it is inspired by the life and music of American singer-songwriter Bob Dylan, with six actors depicting different facets of Dylan's public personas: Christian Bale, Cate Blanchett, Marcus Carl Franklin, Richard Gere, Heath Ledger (his final film to be released during his lifetime), and Ben Whishaw.

I'm Not There premiered at the 64th Venice International Film Festival on September 3, 2007, and was released in the United States on November 21 and in Germany on February 28, 2008.

The film received generally positive reviews from critics, with praise for its acting (particularly Blanchett's), directing, and musical score.

Each character represents a different facet of Dylan's public persona: poet (Arthur Rimbaud), prophet (Jack Rollins/Father John), outlaw (Billy McCarty), fake (Woody Guthrie), "rock and roll martyr" (Jude Quinn), and "star of electricity" (Robbie Clark).

Production notes published by distributor The Weinstein Company explain that the film "dramatizes the life and music of Bob Dylan as a series of shifting personae, each performed by a different actor—poet, prophet, outlaw, fake, star of electricity, rock and roll martyr, born-again Christian—six identities braided together, six organs pumping through one life story.

His cryptic responses are interspersed throughout the film, including remarks on fatalism, the nature of poets, "seven simple rules for life in hiding," and chaos.

Carrying a guitar in a case bearing the slogan "this machine kills fascists", he plays blues music and sings about topics such as trade unionism.

Part of a conversation on a freight train between Woody and two hobos about his life in a town called "Riddle" is directly lifted from another film, A Face in the Crowd (1957).

They are impressed with his musical talents, but Woody runs off when they receive a telephone call from a juvenile corrections center in Minnesota telling them he is an escaped fugitive.

He signs to Columbia Records, but in 1963, just as the Vietnam War is escalating, he stops singing protest songs and turns away from folk music, believing that neither affects real social or political change.

He goes into hiding, and in 1974 enters a bible study course in Stockton, California, and emerges a born again Christian, denouncing his past and becoming an ordained minister performing gospel music under the name "Father John".

Travelling to London, Jude is asked by journalist Keenan Jones if he has become disillusioned or thinks folk music has failed to achieve its goals of sociopolitical change.

Keenan reveals on television that, despite his claims of a rough-and-tumble vagabond past, Jude is actually Aaron Jacob Edelstein, the suburban, middle-class, educated son of a Brookline, Massachusetts department store owner.

Faced with a long string of upcoming European tour dates, Jude spirals into drug use and is apparently killed in a motorcycle accident.

Outlaw Billy McCarty, believed to have been killed by Pat Garrett, lives in hiding and solitude in a shack outside rural Riddle, Missouri, a surreal town referenced in the Woody Guthrie section.

In the course of writing, Haynes has acknowledged that he became uncertain whether he could successfully carry off a film which deliberately confused biography with fantasy in such an extreme way.

According to the account of the film that Robert Sullivan published in the New York Times: "Haynes called Jeff Rosen, Dylan's right hand, who was watching the deal-making but staying out of the scriptwriting.

And that's why his fan base is so obsessive, so desirous of finding the truth and the absolutes and the answers to him – things that Dylan will never provide and will only frustrate.

A notable non-Dylan song in the movie is "(I'm Not Your) Steppin' Stone" by The Monkees, which plays in the background of a party scene set in London.

[19] The DVD special features include audio commentary from Haynes, deleted scenes, featurettes, a music video, audition tapes for certain cast members, trailers, and a Bob Dylan filmography and discography.

The site's critical consensus states: "I'm Not There's unique editing, visuals, and multiple talented actors portraying Bob Dylan make for a deliciously unconventional experience.

"[24] Todd McCarthy of Variety, concluded that the film was well-made, but was ultimately a speciality event for Dylan fans, with little mainstream appeal.

"[5] For Roger Ebert, the film was enjoyable cinematically, yet never sought to resolve the enigmas of Dylan's life and work: "Coming away from I'm Not There, we have, first of all, heard some great music ... We've seen six gifted actors challenged by playing facets of a complete man.

"[3] Quinn is an embodiment of Dylan in 1965–66, when he controversially played electric guitar at the Newport Folk Festival, toured the UK with a band and was booed.

[36][37] The sped-up film speed in the scene of Quinn gambolling with The Beatles echoes the style of Richard Lester's depiction in A Hard Day's Night.

[39] The scene in which Jude is called "Judas" by an audience member is based on a May 17, 1966, concert in Manchester, captured on Dylan's album Live 1966.

[43][44] Billy's final monologue in the film echoes remarks Dylan made in a 1997 interview with David Gates of Newsweek: "I don't think I'm tangible to myself.

[48] In his production notes, Haynes wrote that Robbie and Claire's relationship is "doomed to a long stubborn protraction (not unlike Vietnam, which it parallels).

[49] Keenan Jones, the name of the fictional reporter who investigates Jude Quinn and Pat Garrett, echoes Dylan's song "Ballad of a Thin Man" with its chorus: "Something is happening here/ And you don't know what it is, do you Mr.