I’m obsessed with music, but was never the biggest reggae fan. If I was on a hammock on the beach and wanted to hear some, I’d go for Sly & Robbie or Jimmy Cliff. But since I knew almost nothing of this legend, I was looking forward to learning more here. Unfortunately, I didn’t learn much, and it gave us biopic cliches with very little friction.
The two lead performances were great – Kingsley Ben-Adir as Bob Marley (Ben-Adir did a great job playing Malcolm X in “One Night in Miami”); and Lashana Lynch as Rita Marley was excellent [fun fact: she actually became 007 briefly in the last Bond movie].
We see a few flashbacks of Marley’s life, when he’s about to go onstage, or when he visits his wife in the hospital – but they’re not subtle enough, or done in a very satisfying way.
In my review of “Ferrari” I joked about how they used the line “the wrong son died” from an angry mother, which was a joke in the parody “Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story” (John C. Reilly). With the flashbacks, I thought of Reilly having painful memories before hitting the stage.
It’s strange that not one of the four writers involved in this mess, realized how goofy some of the things were that they wrote for this; but then, four of Marley’s kids, and his widow Rita, were all involved as producers. Ziggy Marley even said before the screening I saw, that he was on the set every day, to ensure that the movie did justice to his father. That means we got a gentle telling of his various protests and Rastafarian beliefs.
As a concert for peace was going to be put on, during violent civil unrest, perhaps we should have been a bit more on the edge of our seats.
Now, my favorite moment in music movies is when the band is in the studio working on new songs. I loved seeing them rehearse “I Shot the Sheriff” for the big concert, or Marley working on “Redemption Song” by a fire pit. And even though it may have been a bit cheesy, I got goosebumps when his wife asked when he wrote that, and he said “All my life.”
And I thought it would be a hoot to see the band go to the UK to record their huge album “Exodus.” But other than some fun with them watching a punk band in a club, it didn’t register much of an impact. Yet this is the album Time magazine claimed was the best record of the 20th century. I merely thought of how great it was watching Paul Dano, as Brian Wilson, record “Pet Sounds” on screen for “Love & Mercy” (which was unfortunately a bad movie, aside from that scene).
I had mixed feelings with how the songs were worked in. Yeah, we hear the hits (War, Get Up, Stand Up, Jamming, One Love, etc.), but it felt like they were being forced in so we got them all in, and a tad contrived. For example, we see a fight between Rita and Bob, and affairs are brought up. Then we hear “No Woman No Cry.”
Early in the press screening, a guy in the crowd yelled out “subtitles!”
And yes, my wife and I also found it hard to understand the accents at times.
This movie is strictly for the hardcore Bob Marley fans, and even they might be a bit disappointed. It’s kind of like when you go to a club to watch a tribute band. You’re hearing songs you love, but aren’t sure how you feel about the folks onstage in wigs and outfits, trying to look like the real artists.
2 stars out of 5.