Review: Bob Marley: One Love

Image courtesy of Paramount Pictures.

There's an introduction to "Bob Marley: One Love" during which Ziggy Marley, fellow musician and son of Bob, notes that the film you are about to see depicting his father's life is authentic. While this may be the case and the filmmakers deserve credit for trying to capture the essence of their subject, authenticity does not necessarily make for a successful biopic.

So, while the film - directed by Reinaldo Marcus Green ("King Richard") - appears to accurately aim to capture the manner in which Bob; his wife, Rita (Lashana Lynch); and his fellow Wailers speak (in other words, there's no attempt to Anglicize the patois) and it's full of great music, there's something missing here. At the risk of a dumb joke, let's say the filmmakers fail to catch a fire.

The problem is not in the casting. As the titular musical legend, Kingsley Ben-Adir turns in a convincing performance, while Lynch is solid as Rita, although her character drops in and out of the action and is often used as a plot device for Bob - for example, when she's shot the band decides to flee Jamaica for England for a while, whereas the flashbacks involving a younger Bob and Rita exist to show how the band came together. 

The issue is also not with the film's style. The picture often looks great - there's some gorgeous cinematography - and it is filled with not only some of Marley's most well known songs ("Jamming" and "Exodus"), but also some fantastic, lesser-known gems ("Turn Your Lights Down Low" and "Natural Mystic").

One of the issues is the picture's framing device - Marley's return from England to Jamaica to perform a peace concert is meant to unite the island's warring political factions several years after an assassination attempt was made on his life. While the concert itself might have been an intriguing window into the musician's life, it instead is utilized in the manner that is so familiar to many biopics of this type - an excuse for Marley to flash back on his life while awaiting the performance. 

Secondly, the film also includes the biopic trope that has always been a bit exasperating: the concept that musicians just make up songs on the fly when someone utters a phrase or an object in their line of sight causes momentary inspiration. In this case, Marley sings "Three Little Birds" to his sons when trying to convince them that everything will be alright amid Jamaica's unrest and, worse, during a sequence in which he catches his band members listening to the score to the 1960 film "Exodus" and seemingly comes up with the rhythm, lyrics, and overall sound to that song instantaneously.

"Bob Marley: One Love" isn't a bad film. The two lead performances are good - although virtually every other character is a minor sketch - and the film's lush visual style adds something. And, of course, you'll find no complaints here about spending two hours listening to Marley's music. But the music biopics that stand out for me are the ones that do a little something different - consider the remarkable Bob Dylan film "I'm Not There" or the N.W.A. bio "Straight Outta Compton." In comparison, this film is mostly by-the-numbers.