Directed By Reinaldo Marcus Green

Starring – Kingsley Ben-Adir, James Norton, Lashana Lynch

The Plot – Celebrates the life and music of an icon who inspired generations through his message of love and unity. On the big screen for the first time, discover Bob Marley’s (Ben-Adir) powerful story of overcoming adversity and the journey behind his revolutionary music.

Rated PG-13 for marijuana use and smoking throughout, some violence and brief strong adult language.

Bob Marley: One Love – Official Trailer (2024 Movie) (youtube.com)

POSITIVES

Many elements of execution can be called into question about this movie, but the performances simply aren’t one of them, with the combination of Kingsley Ben-Adir and Lashana Lynch seamlessly replicating their vital figures. The responsibility is especially taxing for Ben-Adir, who not only captures the humility and tenderness of Marley as such an iconic figure to the Jamaican people, but also perfection in his vocal range, which Kingsley hired a music teacher to audibly transform himself into the decorated role, and while the film doesn’t always take full advantage of his vocal talents, with live music performances instead opting for Kingsley lip-synching previous Marley performances, he’s ideally the right man for articulating what feels like emulating Marley, instead of impersonating him. Lynch’s Rita also surprisingly showcases lots of dependency in the depths of the script, capturing the stoicism and sincerity of her broad shoulders and nourishing soul, which makes her the rockstar inside of the house to counteract Bob’s revolutionary stance outside of it. As to where most love interests aren’t frequently featured in films like these, Green made her a vital aspect of the proceedings, as the film eventually transitions towards her carrying Bob throughout some of his deepest and most taxing conflicts, leading to a chemistry between Ben-Adir and Lynch that gravitated me towards the film in ways the script simply never could. In addition to the performances, the cinematography here from Robert Elswit surprisingly takes full advantage of the Jamaican countryside, with scenic scopes and feverish townsfolk depiction, as well as some spellbinding symbolism in imagery that makes the most of the big screen scale. Elswit is most notably known for collaborating with Paul Thomas Anderson, so his visual flare supplants a stylistic compliment to the film that works cohesively within the confines of a country as beautiful as Jamaica, immersing us to the beauty of the landscapes that balanced some of the ugliness in political devastation that crippled it at the time. Lastly, the film’s soundtrack leaves no proverbial stone unturned, as a vast collection of Marley hits find their way to the integrity of the film, offering newcomers a wide instrumental and thematic versatility that could serve as the initial steps to lifetime fandom. Even thinking about it minutes after the film, I struggle to find one major song that wasn’t featured somewhere in the 100 minute duration, and while this is obvious coming from such an acclaimed musician, the film effortlessly showcases the meaning that Marley’s music had for unifying a country that was racially and politically segregated, with Bob’s lyrics as the call to urgency that so many of his people cried as the plagued voiceless.

NEGATIVES

Like most music biopics, “Bob Marley: One Love” carries with it the kind of shallow depth that can easily be found in a Wikipedia summary of the artist, but its deepest problems pertain to the ambitious chances it does take with its source material, cementing a tedious engagement that is often plagued by tripping over its own flawed and frivolous execution. For starters, the script is a mess, choosing to deviate away from the straight and narrow path of biographical storytelling for three respective arcs (Child, teen and adult) of Marley, which overcomplicates the usage and delivery of various exposition. Because most of the film remains faithful to Marley’s adult timeline, choosing to flashback to younger arcs whenever something in the current day requires defining significance, the flashbacks are every bit abrupt as they are often unnecessary, leaving audience investment plagued by a lack of investment to Bob, as we know next to nothing about him when the film begins with him in the middle of a dangerous war being fought in his homeland, with him as essentially the only savior who can musically reach both sides. This crafts a huge disservice to Marley’s legacy, but greater than that points to an even bigger issue within contemporary biopics, in which little light is shed on little known realities about the figure in question, but also a scrubbing of dramatic depth that refuses to challenge the production’s pristine vantage of Marley, which perhaps remains in tow because Marley’s own children stood as producers to the production behind the scenes. Sure, Marley’s battles with cancer diagnosis and occasional marital spats with Rita are mentioned, but with the kind of lasting impact as a single solitary cloud on an otherwise sunny day, and it leaves the film bordering on boredom, particularly during the second act, where the outstretched formula of spontaneous flashbacks hinders into any kind of audience connection to introduced conflicts that are introduced then shelved almost immediately. This is made even more difficult with the extensive number of musical performances littered redundantly throughout the run time, cutting even further into the exposition and storytelling to experience what many already have with Marley as a musician. To be fair, I previously commended the film for utilizing Marley’s musical catalogue in ways that could introduce his work to fans of a new generation, but I wish it was more as an overhead soundtrack, instead of story-halting performances requiring corresponding visuals, as the aforementioned 100 minute run time already alludes to much of Marley’s story being hemmed for screenplay, but it’s so much more demanding when it has to balance no fewer than fifteen performances along the way, leaving “One Love” feeling like a full-fledged musical without any of the fantastical pageantry that accommodates the genre. Finally and perhaps most unavoidably, the film’s dialogue is a bit difficult to discern within so many thick Jamaican accents that dominate its ensemble. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, as authenticism of environment is something I’ve always appreciated, but I would also be lying to my readers if I said that I clearly and concisely understood and followed every interraction without issue, especially with my experience to Jamaican terminology being limited by a complete lack of experience. This will serve as a bit of an internal disconnect to people looking to tap seamlessly into the film, as their requirement to use subtitles to want or need to understand every interaction or bombshell will have their eyes in places where it rightfully shouldn’t be, with more effort required than necessary to decipher something that most other films don’t have the difficulty of dealing with. I obviously don’t blame the film for it, but even with state-of-the-art sound in an immersive theater, I found myself wishing that I had subtitles or a rewind button in the same ways I wish for it during movies heavily cloaked in Cockney English rhetoric.

OVERALL
“Bob Marley: One Love” is a valiant effort in the life and times of Reggae’s most iconic superstar, especially with a duo of dazzling performances from Kingsley Ben-Adir and Lashana Lynch at its disposal, but it’s ultimately weighed down by a fumbling unfocused format and overindulgence of music performances, which hinder an already limited accessibility toward its titular protagonist. While the film does prescribe an meaningful value to music in dire situations, it doesn’t uncover anything new or compelling about the man behind the music, leaving us on the outside looking in on a flawed film that never matches Marley’s irreplaceable impact with something to break the spell of biopic blunders.

My Grade: 4/10 or D