Director: Reinaldo Marcus Green

Story By: Terence Winter, Frank E. Flowers, Zach Baylin, & Reinaldo Marcus Green

Cast: Kingsley Ben-Adir, Lashana Lynch, Anthony Welsh, and Tosin Cole

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Jamaican artist and icon Bob Marley goes on a quest to create one of the greatest albums in history in order to bring about peace and unity in his country. This is Bob Marley: One Love

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Theme & Story: C

Pacing: B

Character: A

Overall “Paper” Score: B

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Entertainment Factors

General Public: Wait for Streaming

Marley Fans: Interesting Enough

Biopic Fans: Wait for Streaming

Experience Seekers (music & drama/development): Wait for Streaming

Overall “Viewing Experience” Score: Wait for Streaming

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TAKEAWAYS:

**For 2024, I’m continuing to go back to how I used to “review” films by just giving some takeaway moments from my viewing experience. At the very bottom of the my takeaways is my analysis, which includes spoilers. 

1. Lissen…Lashana MF Lynch! 😩🙌🏾🙌🏾🙌🏾👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾 My goodness I love her. She is absolutely amazing. 

2. There’s a page in Ann Hornaday’s book “Talking Pictures” where she mentions something about how some films try to be “deep”, and there are moments in this film that felt like a forced attempt at being symbolic to make up for gaps in other aspects of the storyline about Marley’s life. 🤷🏾‍♂️

3. The second half of Act 2 and all of Act 3 were the strongest/most engaging parts of this film for me. 👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾

4. You know…someone I spoke with wasn’t a “fan” of Ben-Adir playing Marley because they said he was “too good looking…”, and yes, Ben-Adir is a beautiful man, but I was actually impressed with his portrayal. I could tell he took it serious. 👍🏾

5. There were some editing/visual choices that were not good. Especially those after the shooting. In one moment, I could see eyes moving behind the lid, and another moment where the eye opened before the scene transitioned. 🥴

6. I’ve been playing the Exodus soundtrack opening ever since the movie. I had the same feelings they had at first listen. 😂👍🏾

7. There were a few cinematography choices that were really pretty. There were so many scenes in Act One that were so “rustic/gritty beautiful”. 👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾

8. Now on the other hand, in reference to point #5, that shooting scene. 🫢

9. How long had it been since she’d been in the hospital to her showing up for that concert? A few weeks? Days? Hours? 🤔🤨

10. It’s a small thing, but I liked how they made that soccer incident stand out. What I originally thought they were trying to do with that scene ended up being something more. 👍🏾

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Overall #BobMarleyOneLove gives Rustin – meets Jimi: All Is By My Side – meets T’Challa and Nakia’s relationship from Black Panther

I must admit I was more excited to see this film during its promotional months. Leaving the film, I found myself being able to appreciate what the film was attempting to do for the lasting character of Bob Marly, but I wouldn’t say I was satisfied with the story. 

It seems to be a feel good film vs a dramatic biopic, and I at least walked away seeing a representation of Bob Marley I had never expected. More than likely due to a level of stereotypical ignorance, I’ve always assumed Bob Marley to be an aggressive, slick mouth, hyper-masculine homophobic Jamaican, but it seems this wasn’t the case. Instead, this film showed a pleasant, and rather jovial Jamaican man who was passionate about his music. 

*** SPOILER THOUGHTS BELOW ***

Why the C for theme and story?

Even though Acts One and Three eventually make its way back to one another in terms of thematic cohesiveness, there is an entire Act and a half that veers off into more of a character focus which seemed a little disconnected from how the film starts. If the film hadn’t started with the opening statement, implying that what will be viewed is Marley actively in the middle of the chaos addressing the divisiveness with his music as resistance and a revolution, and instead just let the film open in the middle of the chaos while using dialogue to be how we learn of what’s happening through Marley’s music and life goals, I’d given this component a higher score. 

The film opens setting viewers up with the current context of the story—being in the middle of a divisive political party war that was impacting the livelihood of Jamaicans. This set in motion an expectation that the film would tackle themes of unity, community, love, peace… These were also sprinkled throughout different moments across the three Acts, but not enough to make it feel cohesive as the film spends a lot of time showing the experience of planning and “making” an album meant to address the divisiveness (??); but somehow just felt like the making of an iconic album to crossover so that he could make enough money to provide better for his family. 

In Act One, viewers are shown these beautiful, yet gritty images of Jamaica and the ways politics, law enforcement, and crime have made themselves present/visible while Marley’s surrounding himself with the potential/actualities of a positive, loving, community centered Jamaica.  There’s music of resistance led by Marley, along with conversations regarding the negative make up of Jamaica at the moment, and then these random flashbacks of Marley’s childhood… I assume they were meant to act as a parallel-flashback of his life and experiences?? 

Act Two moves us from Jamaica to London, and at this point it feels like the story pivots to an entirely different focus—the making of his most prolific album and seeing Marley’s personality. It tries to keep up with the divisive state of Jamaica through news headlines, phone conversations, and a visit by some gang leaders, but it’s clear that the film has detoured from the opening message. 

Act Three continues with the music focus, and tried to bring some “mo money, mo problems” drama to the story in addition to the cause of his death, and then brings the story back full circle when he returns to Jamaica to perform his new album and squash the political war by bringing the two political party leaders together on stage as a symbol of the themes initially planted at the start of the film.   

Why the B for pacing?

I’m terms of character understanding, the pacing is beautiful. Pacing slows down a bit when focused on the story, but only in the first minutes of the film. Personally, the changing of thematic course in Act 2 actually helped the overall pacing with engagement since the focus became mainly about the character and the music. 

Why the A for character?

First and foremost, Ben-Adir delivered a great performance of Bob Marley. Additionally, the writing definitely supported the showcasing of a character who embodied the theme of love and peace across all Acts through every character interaction whether in the moment of the shooting, the racial tensions while in London, the playing of soccer, it the making and performing of his music. This was pretty solid. 

Lashana Lynch’s character embodied full out community. Every moment she was in, every sentence she spoke, and even her glares were all connected to the theme of community/unity and pride. There’s a moment where her character sort of breaks a 4th wall for me when she addresses Marley for essentially being out of touch/away from everything the film opens with. 

The conversations between these two characters definitely help to save Act 2 from being too off the thematic train, but they cant do it alone.