Bob Marley: One Love
Director: Reinaldo Marcus Green
Stars: Kingsley Ben-Adir, James Norton & Lashana Lynch
Runtime: 1 hour 44 mins
Genre: Biographical Music Drama
IMDb : Click Here
Bob Marley: One Love directed by Reinaldo Marcus Green (who previous helmed King Richard with Will Smith) was considered very much a passion project by Kingsley Ben-Adir. Bob Marley's son Ziggy lobbied for him to play his late father and Ben-Adir was even given the blessing of Greta Gerwing whilst on the set of his previous film Barbie (2023) to be able to study recordings of Bob Marley and recite back what he heard.
In preparation for this movie I saw the excellent Netflix 2018 documentary film Who Shot the Sheriff? A Bob Marley story, this documentary helped put everything into context, I really recommend you watch this 55 minute documentary before watching this movie as it will put what happens in the film into context.
Whilst it never steps out of a safe space and portrays it's titular character in an almost too positive light, I enjoyed One Love, Kingsley Ben Adir (Whilst not totally resembling Marley) embodies him perfectly and IS Bob Marley. To say that the actor himself sang and learnt to play the guitar for the role, proves how much he got into portraying the legendary singer. Lashana Lynch (Captain Marvel & No Time to Die) is equally very strong as his wife Rita. If you are a fan of Marley's classic hits (And let's face it who isn't) you will be humming throughout the movie.
What I like as well is director Marcus Green decided to not hold back on the Jamaican accent, and the actors worked very hard with their dialect coaches to give as authentic accent as possible which makes the movie feel all the more real.
As biopics go, it's a relative simple affair and at no time hits the heights of say Bohemian Rhapsody, but it zips by at 1 hour 45 mins. I would say however there are slight pacing issues as the movie flips between present day and Bob and Rita's courtship, which I found a little jarring and could have been handed differently. Also my main gripe is the crucial shooting that happens towards the start of the movie takes place before the first concert which in reality (and detailed in the documentary) took place after and that's the whole reason for the attempt on Marley's life.
Anyway, regardless of this nit-pick, if you are a fan of biopics and Bob Marley's music I recommend you check this one out.
Verdict: Good...but not Great
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