Wednesday, February 14, 2024

Bob Marley: One Love - Movie Review


The Movie: Bob Marley: One Love

The Director: Reinaldo Marcus Green

The Cast: Kingsley Ben-Adir, Lashana Lynch, James Norton, Tosin Cole, Anthony Welsh, Michael Gandolfini, Umi Myers, Nadine Marshall

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


The Rating: 7 / 10

The Review: 
Bob Marley is one of the most influential people of all time in the world of music. His songs have touched souls around the world for generations and it's interesting that a major motion picture has not been made about his life until now. Maybe the universe was waiting for Kingsley Ben-Adir to be ready to take on this role of a lifetime as his performance is definitey one of the highlights of the movie. After watching the movie, I don't know if I would want anyone in his place as the iconic singer/songwriter.

Along with Ben-Adir, Lashana Lynch is pretty incredible as Marley's wife Rita and I'm thinking this could be some of the best work she has ever turned in. Just like the woman she plays, Lynch is really the backbone and strength of the movie and carries the more emotional and powerful scenes. When she is on screen, you stand up and take notice. I hope people recognize the efforts from both actors as they do a great job of showcasing their talents all the way through.

Speaking of talents, we all know how talented of an artist Bob Marley himself was and the music really speaks for itself. It was quite the experience getting to hear all of the songs inside of a theater with an immersive surround sound mix blasting through the speakers. I wasn't the only one dancing a little in my seat and this is really why I wanted to make sure I saw this movie in an actual movie theater, you just can't replicate that experience anywhere else.

If I'm going to point out any areas of opportunity here it would be how the movie sort of wanders back and forth through a couple different timelines and the story gets a little lost in this process. I would have liked a cleaner approach or maybe a little more attention to detail in the editing process to make things easier to follow along.

Other than that though, this is a very well made movie that touches on many different points of Mr. Marley's life while showcasing the political climate of the time in Jamaica and the events that led to the creation of Exodus, Marley's crowning musical achievement. We also see everything that led to the legendary One Love concert that helped to unite a nation and, along with the music itself, continues to unite people around the world to this day.

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