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Bob Marley: One Love
Full disclosure, an excellent trailer lured this reviewer into 2024's Bob Marley: One Love, a pretentious and by the numbers biopic that starts off promisingly, but eventually degenerates into a vague and conventional look at the reggae icon, despite some impressive musical sequences.
As the film opens, Marley is preparing for a benefit concert that he is convinced will bring a cease fire to all of the political and military unrest in his native Jamaica. But then he is shot twice and decides to abandon his wife and 12 children for London, which leads to the creation of his album, "Exodus" which went gold and led to a world tour where fame goes to his head and where the love of his family and country, well established in the first half of the film, pretty much disappear during the second half.
The screenplay for this film initially sets up Marley as some sort of musical who believes the problems of the universe can be solved with his music. We are initially impressed when he leaves Jamaica to protect his family, but once he does, his children are pretty much forgotten for the rest of the film, even with devoted wife Rita by his side. Once Marley embarks on his world tour, the screenplay takes on an ambivalence that implies a lot of Marley's story is being glossed over. The second half of the film feels completely different from the first in the fact that it feels like the subject is being protected and they're trying to hide something on the viewer. And on a technical note, I cannot lie that the very thick Jamaican accents employed by most of the cast made it very difficult to understand a healthy chunk of the dialogue.
On the positive sides, the musical sequences elevate the movie when they do come up. Was especially impressed with the scenes where "Jammin" and "I Shot the Sheriff" was performed, and the presentation of the song "Exodus" brought up some questions. Marley hears a band member listening to the movie soundtrack of the Paul Newman movie and just picks up his guitar and starts making up a song called "Exodus" right there n the spot. I found myself wondering if all of Marley's work came off the top of his head like that without writing anything down, but it definitely made up for the movie's most compelling scene.
Reinaldo Marcus Green, who directed Will Smith to the Oscar he won for King Richard provides slightly melodramatic direction to the proceedings, making the film a little on the sluggish side. Kingsley Ben-Adir, who impressed as Malcom X in the Regina King film One Night in Miami, works very hard in the title role as do Lashana Lynch as Rita, and James Norton, who appeared in Greta Gerwig's Little Women, as Chris Blackwell as Bob's manager, but overall, this one was a huge disappointment and documentation that a great trailer is not guarantee of a great movie.
Full disclosure, an excellent trailer lured this reviewer into 2024's Bob Marley: One Love, a pretentious and by the numbers biopic that starts off promisingly, but eventually degenerates into a vague and conventional look at the reggae icon, despite some impressive musical sequences.
As the film opens, Marley is preparing for a benefit concert that he is convinced will bring a cease fire to all of the political and military unrest in his native Jamaica. But then he is shot twice and decides to abandon his wife and 12 children for London, which leads to the creation of his album, "Exodus" which went gold and led to a world tour where fame goes to his head and where the love of his family and country, well established in the first half of the film, pretty much disappear during the second half.
The screenplay for this film initially sets up Marley as some sort of musical who believes the problems of the universe can be solved with his music. We are initially impressed when he leaves Jamaica to protect his family, but once he does, his children are pretty much forgotten for the rest of the film, even with devoted wife Rita by his side. Once Marley embarks on his world tour, the screenplay takes on an ambivalence that implies a lot of Marley's story is being glossed over. The second half of the film feels completely different from the first in the fact that it feels like the subject is being protected and they're trying to hide something on the viewer. And on a technical note, I cannot lie that the very thick Jamaican accents employed by most of the cast made it very difficult to understand a healthy chunk of the dialogue.
On the positive sides, the musical sequences elevate the movie when they do come up. Was especially impressed with the scenes where "Jammin" and "I Shot the Sheriff" was performed, and the presentation of the song "Exodus" brought up some questions. Marley hears a band member listening to the movie soundtrack of the Paul Newman movie and just picks up his guitar and starts making up a song called "Exodus" right there n the spot. I found myself wondering if all of Marley's work came off the top of his head like that without writing anything down, but it definitely made up for the movie's most compelling scene.
Reinaldo Marcus Green, who directed Will Smith to the Oscar he won for King Richard provides slightly melodramatic direction to the proceedings, making the film a little on the sluggish side. Kingsley Ben-Adir, who impressed as Malcom X in the Regina King film One Night in Miami, works very hard in the title role as do Lashana Lynch as Rita, and James Norton, who appeared in Greta Gerwig's Little Women, as Chris Blackwell as Bob's manager, but overall, this one was a huge disappointment and documentation that a great trailer is not guarantee of a great movie.