Bob Marley: One Love review – Kingsley Ben-Adir shines in moving musical biopic

One Love tells the tale of reggae legend Bob Marley, focusing on a tumultuous two years in the singer’s life; a period that climaxed with the release of his greatest album – ‘Exodus.’ The film endeavors to capture the man behind the myth, via a powerhouse performance from Kingsley Ben-Adir.

Ben-Adir knows a thing or two about playing famous, having delivered the one-two punch of Malcolm X and Barrack Obama in 2020. While director Reinaldo Marcus Green had some success with King Richard in 2021, about the Williams sisters and their father, so Marley’s legacy is in seemingly safe hands.

One Love is also very much a family affair, with Marley’s widow Rita producing the movie, alongside his children Ziggy and Cedella. The singer’s surviving friends also all contributed. This means we get insights from the people who were there when Bob was writing and recording.

But the film truly comes to life when the great man is performing, with Ben-Adir playing Bob like a man possessed as he lip-synchs to several iconic performances. And it’s in these scenes where One Love truly sings.

What is Bob Marley: One Love about?

The film’s story kicks off in 1976, during a time of political turmoil in Jamaica, with the battle between the democratic socialist People’s National Party and the conservative Jamaican Labour Party triggering civil unrest; the country exploding into violence.

Against that backdrop, Bob helps organize a concert called Smile Jamaica, with the aim of uniting his homeland via what Marley deems to be “a non-political event.” But “everything is politicized” in Jamaica, as we’re somewhat clumsily told early in proceedings. And just before the gig, gunmen burst into Marley’s house, and – via a sequence that’s masterfully staged – shoot Bob, Rita, his manager Don Taylor, and their assistant Louis Griffith.

Remarkably, all four survive, and Marley delivers an electric performance at the concert just two days later. But the incident changes his outlook; the singer struggles to understand how his own people could do such a thing. As well as changing the direction of his life, with Bob – fearing for his family – relocating to London.

It’s there he decides to make “something different… something big,” and does so by creating the masterpiece ‘Exodus,’ before making a triumphant return to Jamaica with those songs. To perform arguably his greatest gig.

How Bob Marley’s past dilutes his present

Cradle-to-grave biopics rarely succeed, struggling to capture the scope of a person’s life in just a couple of hours. So Green and co-writers Terence Winter, Frank E. Flowers, Zach Baylin are smart to zoom in on these 24 months when Bob was at his most creative. Delivering a snapshot of a man transforming from artist into icon.

But they also employ flashbacks that feel somewhat heavy-handed, dropping in child Bob’s issues with his absent father, and teenage Bob’s discovery of music and love. Scenes that help paint a somewhat rushed picture of Marley’s past. But dilute the drama playing out in the present.

There are also some 1970s scenes that feel a little on the nose, like Bob watching the Clash perform ‘White Riot,’ before walking through an actual riot. Or the record company not understanding their client’s vision, which at this point is a pretty painful musical movie cliché.

That said, sometimes you have to play the hits, and it’s a blast watching Marley audition and assemble his dream team of musicians in the studio, then Jammin’ with them through a mighty cloud of marijuana smoke.

The man, the music, and the marriage

It also feels like the movie can’t quite decide what it’s actually about – the man, the music, or the marriage. As proceedings progress, it feels increasingly like it should be the latter, as those live performances aside, One Love is most affecting when dealing with Bob and Rita’s relationship.

This wasn’t a particularly happy or stable time in their marriage, and Lashana Lynch delivers a poignant performance as a woman very much in love but tossed into the eye of a storm.

Bob is equally at sea but has his music to fall back on, so it’s heartbreaking to watch Rita either shut out or struggle to find her place in his life. Meaning that while this is the joyous story of a man who literally changed the world, it’s also suffused with sadness concerning how that world changed him and the people he most cares about.

Bob Marley One Love score: 3/5

One Love is an entertaining biopic about a remarkable man; one which comes close to capturing Bob Marley’s essence. But that’s more to do with Kingsley Ben-Adir than the film’s sometimes clunky script.

The actor hits all the right notes, capturing Bob’s passion, nobility, and revolutionary spirit, so you believe not only Marley’s musical genius but also his ability to galvanize through a simple message of love. It’s a remarkable performance.

Bob Marley One Love hits screens worldwide on February 14, 2024.