Bob Marley: One Love (2024) Review!!

Synopsis – The story of how reggae icon Bob Marley overcame adversity, and the journey behind his revolutionary music.

My Take – Admittedly, I never knew much about Bob Marley. Other than occasionally stumbling upon and enjoying some of his popular songs, I was aware of only basic facts like how the legendary reggae pioneer inspired many with his philosophy on life and love. Messages that are still prescient even today. At the peak of his fame, Marley had become the face of not just reggae, Rastafarianism and Jamaica, but of revolution, resistance and peace.

And despite passing away at the age of just 36, from a rare skin cancer, his legacy continues to live on in all kinds of philosophy and media franchise. With his life being the latest to join the continuing barrage of musician biopics.

Directed by Reinaldo Marcus Green (King Richard), who co-wrote the screenplay with Terence Winter, Frank E. Flowers, and Zach Baylin, the film starts off with an interesting idea focusing on a specific part of Marley‘s life and honing in on the unifying power of his music, until it suddenly shifts and becomes the kind of biopic that’s been done so many times before, frustratingly saving the most powerful moment for the archive footage at the end.

Resulting in an uneven experience, with aspects that captivated, as well as fell short. A thoroughly formulaic biopic told in an entertaining fashion.

Produced by Marley’s estate, the film appears to be wrestling with finding a single portrait, instead choosing to lessen the larger-than-life impact of the icon, by playing it safe, with only a few stylistic flourishes that take place mostly in the flashback sequences. Ignoring the revolutionary nature of Marley’s music and the often-chaotic state of his life.

Nevertheless, backed by Kingsley Ben-Adir‘s screen-commanding performance and some interesting cinematography, the film ends up being a decent feature, showcasing the indelible legacy of an artist who was gone far too soon.

Opening in 1976, the story follows a 31 years old Bob Marley (Kingsley Ben-Adir), on the fast route to becoming one of the most popular musicians in post-colonial Jamaican history, who amidst armed political conflict that is affecting daily life in Jamaica, decides to hold a concert to promote peace and unity across the country, and bring the warring factions together.

However, while preparing for the concert, Marley, his wife Rita (Lashana Lynch), and his manager, Don Taylor (Anthony Welsh), end up getting shot by assailants. Though they all survive and recover from their injuries in time for the concert, Marley, right after the performance, realizes that his presence is putting everyone close to him in jeopardy, and ends up sending Rita and his children to the US while he exiles with the band to London.

In his struggle to contemplate how he can help his country from thousands of miles away, Marley and his band begins working on a new album, resulting in Exodus, one of the most successful albums ever created.

Here, with the exception of flashbacks to Marley’s hardscrabble upbringing, with some heavy-handed symbolic references to his absentee father, the film largely takes the approach of many a modern-day biopic, focusing on primarily on a pivotal slice of the subject’s life and sees director Reinaldo Marcus Green take a noble but uninspired attempt to capture some of the essence of Marley.

Mainly as it could have dived more into the influence he had on not just the music world, but the world in general, especially since his rise to fame apparently coincided with notable political unrest in Jamaica at the time. But the script is too focused on presenting him as a mythical and almost flawless figure.

The film largely glosses over the more complicated parts of Marley’s life, like he had numerous extramarital affairs and fathered 11 children. A devastatingly powerful sequence in which Rita joins her husband in London, sees him reveling in the spoils of success and calls him out for losing sight of his true self and his true calling.

Yet, what follows feel too sanitized and predictable. Which makes sense, considering Marley’s family including Rita Marley are involved as producers, hence it always feels like its being held back, especially since there’s almost zero conflict for two thirds of the film.

On the positive side, the family’s backing allows the use of music and musical moments. The scenes where this biopic really stands out are in the musical scenes where you see Marley just being a master of his craft when it comes to singing. The production design team do an admirable job of re-creating recording sessions and live performances and capturing the ambiance of the late 1970s time period.

It also helps that Kingsley Ben-Adir has the screen presence to carry the film. His work is transcendent here, in the heavy dramatic scenes and in the exhilarating performance numbers. He not only nails the accent and physicality, he even brings the emotion to understand why Bob Marley continues to idolized and beloved by so many.

Lashana Lynch excels particularly in the emotional moments and proves that she’s able to hold her own. In other roles, James Norton, James Gandolfini, Anthony Welsh, Tosin Cole, Aston Barrett Jr., and Sevana manage to stand out. On the whole, ‘Bob Marley: One Love’ is a decent biopic letdown by its generic approach.