An enjoyable if somewhat disjointed biopic of the Jamaican icon, elevated by the great performances and fantastic music.
I knew very little about Bob Marley’s life and legacy save for a handful of famous songs everybody knows, so if nothing else this movie made me more interested in the man and his music, even if I’m not about to become a full-blown reggae devotee any time soon. I might now check out the Marley documentary on Netflix!
There are different ways a biopic can tackle its subject, and it must always make a decision on how much it wants to cover: should a filmmaker zoom in on one specific period or event in person’s life, or attempt to tell their entire life story? The biggest issue with One Love is that it can’t seem to decide what story it wants to tell, and how it wants to tell it.
The movie opens amidst the political turmoil and unrest that threatens to engulf the entire nation of Jamaica, with Bob Marley (Kingsley Ben-Adir) announcing a concert intended to promote peace between the warring factions. At that point, I half-assumed that the concert would be the movie’s principal focus, but I was wrong. After Marley narrowly survives an attempt on his life, which also leaves his wife Rita (magnetic Lashana Lynch) in the hospital with a head injury, the movie switches focus to his times in punk-era London and the recording of the seminal album Exodus. It also covers the loving but complicated relationship between Marley and Rita, with even more frictions caused by Marley’s new level of fame.
One Love explores these various story strands in a rather uneven and meandering way, as a stream of events that happen one after another. It’s easy to bash the traditional rise-fall-rise formula of a standard biopic, but there’s a good reason for its popularity, and recent musical biopics like Bohemian Rhapsody embraced it unashamedly to give the viewers a giant adrenaline rush of an ending. One Love can’t even fully commit to its focus on a specific time frame, and can’t resist flashbacks hurriedly touching on Marley’s childhood, his abandonment by his white father, courtship of Rita and early days of the Wailers musical career. It all results in a frustratingly unfocused film.
So far I haven’t been very complimentary, and to be honest I can see why the critical response to this movie is lacking in enthusiasm. However, my analytical brain was ultimately overruled and I enjoyed the film for the engaging lead performances and wonderful music that, decades later, still moves and inspires people across the globe.
I couldn’t vouch for how closely Ben-Adir captures the real Bob Marley, but his physical grace and charisma is undeniable, and the few moments when the movie seemed to dig deeper into Marley’s psyche made me wish there were more of them. Lashana Lynch meanwhile does wonders with a similarly underwritten role, turning Rita into a satisfyingly rich character. Again, I wished the movie went more in-depth on their complex relationship, but I completely bought its lived-in quality and warmth. The many musical moments, whether it’s Marley playing in front of thousands, recording with his band in a studio, or sharing an intimate moment with his family, likewise made it into a movie worth watching.
P.S. I wouldn’t call it a flaw as such, but I admit, my ears never really got attuned to the Jamaican accents and I missed out on a good chunk of the dialogue. To be fair, I never missed out on a meaning of a scene or its emotional significance, and I definitely don’t believe that authentic accents should be watered down for mass consumption, but it was one of those times at the cinema when I wished for subtitles.
P.P.S. I loved the all-too-brief scene set at The Clash gig, though without knowing the backstory of the song White Riot may come off as so so very wrong to the viewers who don’t know the context.
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