‘Bob Marley: One Love’ Review: Mediocre Film for a Legendary Musician

Bob Marley is one of the greatest musicians of all time. Not only did he use his talents to bring Jamaican reggae to the masses worldwide, but he also advocated for peace and love across his country during a time of great political strife. His influence, both in and outside of music, is astounding, especially given his short career. Bob Marley: One Love attempts to do the legendary musician justice as it follows his meteoric rise to fame and his attempts to unite his country through peace, but it falls short of doing justice to either. The story is rushed and struggles to emotionally connect with the audience despite strong performances from Kingsley Ben-Adir and Lashana Lynch. There’s little love to be had here, unfortunately.

The biopic follows the life and career of Bob Marley, from his early days in Jamaica including the assassination attempt in his home, to his recording of the album Exodus in London and his subsequent rise to worldwide fame. Despite his rise in popularity, Marley continued to advocate for peace and love around the world, and especially in his home country of Jamaica where warring political parties have divided the country in two.

Bob Marley: One Love is made with the blessing of the Marley estate, and his son Ziggy Marley serves as a producer on the film. It’s no surprise that the best thing about the film is its music since it has the right’s to Marley’s catalogue. The film does a solid job at knowing when to use specific songs, and it actually forces you to truly listen to the lyrics and Marley’s message of love. That being said, One Love relies on his music to do much of the heavy lifting and it’s far from strong enough to hold up an otherwise mediocre film.

The film covers a lot of ground as it details the life and career of Bob Marley. It speeds through life events and rarely leaves audiences with any time to take in the emotional impact of what was shown. When covering Marley’s assassination attempt, the film zips from his house to the hospital to him singing on stage all in a matter of minutes. It’s absolutely jarring to see his wife Rita Marley get shot in the head, be recovering in the hospital, and then be up on stage singing as if nothing ever happened. The pacing is all over the place. Any time the film needs to transition to another scene, it simply uses one of Marley’s songs to fade to black. It feels lazy and also can detract from any emotional potential. In one scene, Lashana Lynch is having a tearful heart-to-heart with Kingsley Ben-Adir and both of their performances is great, but then just as they start to hit their stride the music comes in, and it cuts to the next scene. Bob Marley: One Love doesn’t know how to take full advantage of both its actors and story, which is quite unfortunate because it should be an easy homerun.

Bob Marley: One Love is as forgettable as biopics come. Bob Marley deserves better. It takes all the beauty and complexity of his music and boils them down to fleeting scenes that have little impact. You’re better off just listening to his discography or even just a single album. That’ll give you a better impression of who Bob Marley was than One Love.