Review: Bob Dylan Still a Mystery Despite Timothée Chalamet's Turn in 'A Complete Unknown'

James Mangold is no stranger to the rock 'n' roll biopic, having previously directed the Oscar-winning Johnny Cash film "Walk the Line." It should have been a slam dunk to match him up with another music legend, Bob Dylan, but "A Complete Unknown" feels like a completely unfinished movie.

The film opens in 1961, when a 19-year-old Dylan first arrives in New York City as part of a journey to visit his hero, Woody Guthrie, in the hospital. He arrives while fellow musician Pete Seeger is already with the legendary folk singer. Dylan performs for the pair and Seeger, seeing something in the young artist, offers to take him under his wing and give him a place to stay. Things jump ahead to Dylan performing at the Folk City club open mic and getting noticed by Columbia Records reps, and they are off to the races.

However, the film is more of a highlight reel than an actual narrative. For the first hour or so of a meandering, nearly two-and-a-half hour running time, it seems the film is meant to just chronicle Dylan's rise to fame and his tempestuous relationship with singer Joan Baez (Monica Barbaro). By the time the climax comes, it is revealed that the whole film was really about the buildup to the integration of electric instruments on Dylan's fifth album, "Bringing It All Back Home," and his polarizing performance at the 1965 Newport Folk Festival.

When Dylan storms off stage one night during their co-headlining tour because of Baez's song choice, that should warrant some kind of follow-up to illustrate the fallout to their relationship, but it's never mentioned again. This isn't meant to be a character study of the man as much as it is about a defining artist and a significant moment in his career.

The film has Bob repeatedly telling people he grew up in the circus – a story that the real Dylan had perpetuated himself – but it never explores anything about his actual life before 1961. The only glimpse is when a package is addressed with his original last name, Zimmerman. But his live-in girlfriend, Sylvie (played by a woefully underutilized Elle Fanning), quickly moves the conversation to other topics.

Mangold (who not only directed, but also co-wrote the script, which is based on Elijah Wald's book "Dylan Goes Electric! Newport, Seeger, Dylan and the Night that Split the Sixties") doesn't approach the film as a typical musical biopic. The staging for the musical moments isn't treated any differently from other scenes in the film, even when electrified in the last act. This gives the film a folksier feel, but also robs it of any big moments.

That, in turn, leaves any big show-stopping moments to happen during some of the actor's monologues, the best of which comes when the long-suffering Sylvie is finally (and only for a moment) allowed a chance to shine.

All of this being said, the praise and awards chatter being thrown at Timothée Chalamet is not overblown. At times, Chalamet does actually disappear into the role, even doing his own singing in the film. It's hard not to see this as a career-defining role for the still-young actor. It previously took six actors in "I'm Not Here" to do what Chalamet is able to effortlessly do here.

It's interesting that the singer-songwriter has given his stamp of approval to this film, even offering feedback early in the creative process. Usually not the type to lean into these things – it should be noted that he didn't even attend the ceremony to collect his award when he became the first musician awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature – Dylan is singing the praises of the movie and its lead actor. Perhaps the reason he likes it so much is that it helps keep the mystique of who Bob Dylan really is firmly intact. "A Complete Unknown" is also a fair assessment about how much you will feel you learned about the man behind the generation by the time the credits roll.

"A Complete Unknown" opens in theaters on December 25.