Bob Marley: One Love (2024)

• Year: 2024
• Released: 14 Feb 2024
• Country: United States
• Adwords: N/A
• IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt8521778/
• Rotten Tomatoes: https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/bob_marley_one_love
• Metacritics:
• Available in: 720p, 1080p, 1080p
• Language: English
• MPA Rating: PG-13
• Genre: Biography, Drama, Music
• Runtime: 107 min
• Writer: Terence Winter, Frank E. Flowers, Zach Baylin
• Director: Reinaldo Marcus Green
• Cast: Kingsley Ben-Adir, Lashana Lynch, James Norton
• Keywords: biography,

	6.5/10
	43% – Critics
	92% – Audience

Bob Marley: One Love Storyline

The film opens with a young Robert Nesta Marley (Nolan Collignon) joining his mother as they take a bus from one home to another. This is followed by text explaining how Bob Marley is still known today as Jamaica’s biggest star. He grew up from humble beginnings around a time of violence in Jamaica during the 70s after the nation gained its independence from Great Britain.Bob (Kingsley Ben-Adir), already well into his career, goes to a press conference after announcing that he is planning to hold a peace concert, “Smile Jamaica”, to unite the nation in the face of political discourse. Some critics fear that Bob is making it look like his is taking a side.Kingston, 1976 – Bob is playing soccer with his friends and sons when thugs start firing their guns in the streets. Bob protects his sons and takes them away, telling them not to worry about what happened (this is also where he starts to come up with “Three Little Birds”). They return to their home, where Bob talks to his wife Rita (Lashana Lynch), as the constant threat of violence around their family puts her on edge.Later, Bob goes to rehearse “I Shot The Sheriff” with his group, The Wailers. Rita steps out momentarily and sees two gunmen running towards the house, while a third aims his gun at her head. The two men enter the house and shoot at Bob and his friend Don Taylor (Anthony Welsh), while Rita has also been shot. Despite his injury, Bob rises to his feet and gets Don and Rita to the hospital. Bob sits by Rita’s bedside as she lies unconscious. He reminisces about when they were teenagers (played by Quan-Dajai Henrique and Nia Ashi) and Bob began to court Rita.Following their recoveries, Bob still plans on going forward with the concert. Everyone close to him sees it as a bad idea for his safety and his family’s, but he insists on doing it. On the night of the show, Bob goes and performs, but he briefly hallucinates seeing the gunman that shot him in the crowd. He then stops the show and reveals his injuries to the crowd before walking off the stage. Rita tries to comfort him, and Bob says he needs time to himself.Three months later, Bob travels to London with some of his friends. While there, they are arrested for possession of cannabis. In jail, Bob recalls how Rita first brought him into the Rastafari movement. He also thinks about witnessing his father abandon him and his mother when he was a child, and he refused to acknowledge Bob as his son.Later, Bob talks to his producer Chris Blackwell (James Norton) over ideas for a new album. Rita joins him in London while Bob and the Wailers are trying to come up with a new sound. Bob listens to the soundtrack to the film “Exodus” and starts to come up with his own song of the same name. With help from publicist Howard Bloom (Michael Gandolfini), the group makes their next album, “Exodus”, which becomes a worldwide best-selling hit.Following the album’s success, Bob goes on a tour throughout Europe in 1977. Although he sees much more success and popularity, Bob is seen engaging in an affair with a woman, Cindy Breakspeare (Umi Myers). During a pickup game of soccer, Bob is seen stumbling after an injury, but he brushes it off.Chris invites Bob and company to an event. While there, Bob gets jealous at seeing Rita talking to another man. When he goes outside to confront her, she in turn hits back at him with the knowledge of his own multiple affairs and the children he has produced as a result. Rita slaps Bob and also tells him to keep an eye out for Don, as he is doing some shady businesses behind Bob’s back.After another show, Bob confronts Don backstage over what Rita told him. He begins to physically attack Don before his band mates and Rita pull Bob off of him.Not long after, Bob visits a doctor after Rita and Chris express concerns over a dark spot on Bob’s toe where he injured himself during the pickup game. The doctor informs Bob that he has melanoma, and while it was recommended that he have the toe removed to stop the cancer from spreading, Bob declines and is left in a state of despair over the news. He talks to Rita, who gives him her own little speech and inspires him to return home to Jamaica.1978 – Bob makes his return to Jamaica, with a huge crowd gathering for him as the plane lands. Bob visits his old home, which is now empty. The same gunman that shot him enters the house, asking Bob for forgiveness. Bob says he holds no vengeance in his heart. Later, Bob sits with Rita and their sons around a campfire as he comes up with “Redemption Song”. Rita says that Bob is ready to perform again.Bob and the Wailers later get ready as they gather for a large crowd in Jamaica for a new show. He then gets up to perform “One Love”.Ending text states that Bob Marley passed away on May 11, 1981 from his cancer. However, footage is shown from his One Love Concert where he brought together leaders of opposing political parties as a symbol of unity. It is also stated that Time Magazine called “Exodus” one of the greatest albums of all time.

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Bob Marley: One Love Movie Reviews

An interesting movie, but a bit all over the place

We went to see this movie on a whim and although I am not someone who listens to reggae music, I would like to learn more about it and see what Bob Marley was in our world. The story was not the easiest to follow because it it jumped around in time, which isn’t usually difficult to follow, but it was in this movie. There were aspects missing that would have brought this movie together much better.

I found I enjoyed the music very much and I did get a sense of why Bob Marley was an important figurehead in the attempt of taking away hate at teaching love to all.

I thought the actress who played Bob’s wife was fantastic. I felt a lot of pain and strife that she must have experienced as the celebrity status of her husband soared. To me, she was the best part of the movie.

This was an interesting movie with fine performances, but it felt a bit rushed and scattered in it’s writing.

I wanted more from it, but to be fair it is still a decent flick in my opinion

It’s fine, just nothing all that memorable.

I had a pleasant enough time viewing ‘Bob Marley: One Love’, though it does kinda seem a bit hollow post-watch – as in I don’t feel like I’ve learned much nor actually seen that much, the movie has like three noteworthy events but then that’s kinda it. The music from those involved also didn’t feel amazingly utilised, I guess they didn’t want it to be too jukebox-y.

Kingsley Ben-Adir does well in the lead role as Bob Marley himself. I’m not a Marley superfan or anything close, I basically only know his biggest hits, but the resemblance of Ben-Adir seemed off to me – a thought that was only solidified when the real Marley appears via archive footage at the end. Perhaps that’s just me, though.

Lashana Lynch gives a good performance, spearheading the rest of the cast who are alright; interesting to see James Norton, Michael Gandolfini too… even if I didn’t realise it was Gandolfini until the credits. Overall, it does feel like the film only scratches the surface of Marley’s life. I wanted more from it, but to be fair it is still a decent flick in my opinion.

Kingsley Ben-Adir and Latasha Lynch are Fantastic but Shoddy Construction Drags Down One Love

We do have a lengthy cast list here but One Love is anchored/carried by 2 performances. Kingsley Ben-Adir has the screen presence to carry this project, he nails the accent and even has a lot of physicality to his work in One Love. The emotion he brings to the table helps you understand why Bob Marley was idolized and beloved by so many. I wish the movie had explored more periods of Bob Marley’s life just so we could have seen what Kingsley would have brought to them. I expected Ben-Adir to be good but the more surprising but equally impressive acting came from Lashana Lynch as Bob Marley’s wife Rita. I’ve only seen Lashana previously in tentpole-esque studio fare (No Time to Die and Captain Marvel) but she transforms in One Love and I hope both her and Kingsley get some awards consideration. To the movie’s credit, both Bob and Rita are presented as complex and multi-layered characters and represent the clay that Kingsley and Lashana moulded beautifully with their work in One Love.

It’s a more minor note but one of the surprise boxes One Love ticks is that I think it’s filmed/shot well. The camera work highlights some of Jamaica’s natural beauty but also shows some of the less camera friendly aspects of it as well. The CGI isn’t top-notch but it wasn’t bad enough to draw attention to. I have a friend who I saw the movie with who visited Jamaica and she was calling out parts of the country she toured in her vacation. I can’t call One Love a visual tour de force but there were shots littered throughout the movie that caught my attention and I think it’s worth crediting the team for their work in this film.

So far, you may be confused on why my rating for Bob Marley: One Love is so low and it does have a lot of notable pluses. But the unfortunate truth of the matter is that despite the acting and cinematography being striking and stimulating, the odd structure the movie insists on using to reveal its narrative really hampers the proceedings. My best friend compared the movie’s structure as counting to 10 as if it were 1,4,7,2,5. The film is disorganized and almost confusing unless you’re intimately familiar with Marley’s life (I’m passively familiar at best, I did like some of his music and I knew he passed away relatively young). Subplots are created and dropped (e.g. Marley’s greedy business manager, the drama surrounding Marley’s father, the political unrest in Jamaica in the mid 1970s) frequently and it helps stop the movie from gelling together appropriately. It also dampens the impact of Marley’s passing because the fact he’s terminally ill is introduced so late that you can’t get emotionally invested. There’s a pretty concrete formula about how to operate in this genre and while I admire the screenwriter’s attempt to try something different, it does the movie a disservice instead.

Everything to create a compelling and informative film about Bob Marley’s life was here. We have some terrific performances, some interesting cinematography and Marley and his story are inspiring and his message still prescient even today. But the result of One Love is a puzzling and mildly disappointing misfire, I understand that the studio and the creative team wanting to circumvent the formula but you still have to justify it by showing us a new angle or creating something memorable. Bob Marley: One Love as a product is fine but I think its subject deserved a better movie. I’d really rate One Love somewhere between a 6-7 but I rounding down because of what they squandered in this production. One Love is still worth a watch but as we frequently get some really fantastic movies in this genre, I’d recommend it only to Marley fans as there’s better films about other musicians available for your viewing pleasure.