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Bob Marley: One Love<\/strong> (2024)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Paramount\/Musical-Drama\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 104 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated PG-13 (marijuana use, some violence, brief strong language)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Reinaldo Marcus Green\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Terence Winter, Frank E. Flowers, Zach Baylin and Reinaldo Marcus Green\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Kris Bowers\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Robert Elswit\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: February 14, 2024 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Kingsley Ben-Adir, Lashana Lynch, James Norton, Tosin Cole, Aston Barrett Jr., Anthony Welsh, Sevana, Hector Lewis, Michael Gandolfini, Nadine Marshall.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n Rating<\/strong>: *<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n \u00a0They say a person\u2019s life comes down to the dash between their years of birth and death on their gravestone- e.g. Bob Marley (1945-1981). A lot can happen in that dash. A lot happened to Bob Marley, a pioneer of reggae music, during his short life. Here\u2019s a guy who survived a lonely childhood, a war on the streets of Jamaica and a direct attempt on his life. He created music that spoke to the people. He\u2019s one of the most exciting figures in 20th<\/sup> century music and certainly deserving of a great biopic. Unfortunately, Bob Marley: One Love<\/strong> is NOT that biopic.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n \u00a0From the start, Bob Marley: One Love<\/strong> seems like it\u2019s going to focus on the famous 1976 Smile Jamaica concert, the one that took place just days after he (Adir, High Fidelity) and his wife Rita (Lynch, The Woman King) were shot in their residence in Kingston. NOPE! It all happens in the first 20 minute and the movie doesn\u2019t even get it right. Director Reinaldo Marcus Green (King Richard) would have you believe Marley performed only two songs. In reality, he and his backup band The Wailers played for about 90 minutes. This isn\u2019t the only time Bob Marley: One Love<\/strong> bends the truth. It leaves out quite a lot, glossing over crucial details like Marley\u2019s affairs with other women and his complicated family history. The whole movie feels rushed and incomplete, his story compressed into 104 minutes. It also lacks cohesion, especially with the awkwardly placed flashback scenes.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n \u00a0ANYWAY, Bob Marley: One Love<\/strong> then follows the singer during the two years he resided in London. During that period, he recorded the best-selling Exodus album. It was also when he was first diagnosed with cancer. The film culminates with the One Love Peace Concert in \u201978.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n \u00a0The music in Bob Marley: One Love<\/strong> is great. I\u2019m not what you call a reggae fanatic, but I do like what I\u2019ve heard of Marley. When he\/Adir performs, the movie comes to life. Sadly, the drama falls flat. The best musical biopics- e.g. Coal Miner\u2019s Daughter, La Bamba and What\u2019s Love Got to Do with It- let us get to know their subjects intimately which adds context to the music they create. Green tries to do the same, but misses the mark by a wide margin. The screenplay (by Green and three others) is more like a list of bullet points. It checks off significant events in Marley\u2019s life without really exploring them. His courtship of Rita when they were teens gets a perfunctory treatment. \u00a0His childhood is barely explored beyond a few quick flashbacks that make little sense.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n \u00a0We get a brief explanation of what was going on in Jamaica circa 1976-78 via opening titles. Green largely stays away from political stuff, but I suspect that\u2019s because Marley himself was neutral about the war between the two political parties. Okay, fine. HOWEVER, I would have liked more information about Rastafari, Marley\u2019s religion of choice. I don\u2019t know a lot about it and neither do most non-practitioners I assume. It would have been nice to have a greater understanding of the canvas on which Green paints his portrait of Marley.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n \u00a0The acting in Bob Marley: One Love<\/strong> is fine. That is to say, it\u2019s not terrible. Adir does a decent imitation of Marley, mimicking his gestures and movements perfectly. Therein lies the problem. It\u2019s more of an imitation than a performance. While I admire his commitment to become Marley, I understood maybe half of his dialogue due to a thick Jamaican accent. I think subtitles would have been in order for some scenes. Lynch, who I think is a great actress, gets underserved by a screenplay that often leaves her character adrift.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n \u00a0Speaking of the script, I couldn\u2019t believe some of the dialogue. It\u2019s not bad enough Bob Marley: One Love<\/strong> is disappointingly superficial, it also contains some of the worst dialogue I\u2019ve heard in a long time. Here are a few sample lines for you to ponder:<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n \u201cHis guitar is his machine gun.\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n \u201cYou swim in pollution, you get polluted.\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n \u201cSometimes the messenger has to become the message.\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n Those last two sound like they come right out of a fortune cookie.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n \u00a0In the end, Bob Marley: One Love<\/strong> is a bore. Not only that, Green takes too soft an approach to his subject. I was shocked when I heard it got a PG-13. I figured it would an R due to violence and Marley\u2019s heavy use of marijuana. NOPE! Once again, the money-minded studio execs prevail. A PG-13 means teens can get in which means more $$$. The makers should have gone for gritty; it would have added a greater sense of realism.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n \u00a0With all due respect to Bob Marley and his family, Bob Marley: One Love<\/strong> is a failure on nearly every level. My advice to you is to listen to his albums and skip the movie.<\/p>\r\n Bob Marley: One Love (2024)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Paramount\/Musical-Drama\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 104 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated PG-13 (marijuana use, some violence, brief strong language)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Reinaldo Marcus Green\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Terence Winter, Frank E. Flowers, Zach Baylin and Reinaldo Marcus Green\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Kris Bowers\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Robert Elswit\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: February 14, 2024 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Kingsley Ben-Adir, Lashana Lynch, James Norton, Tosin Cole, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1069,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-317","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-dramas"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/Bob-Marley-One-Love-PIC.jpg?fit=620%2C348&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/317","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=317"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/317\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1071,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/317\/revisions\/1071"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1069"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=317"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=317"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=317"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/Bob-Marley-One-Love-POSTER.jpg?resize=620%2C918&ssl=1\")
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