From earlier this year comes a biopic on Bob Marley, the world's most renowned reggae artist who left us too soon in 1981. Essayed by Kinsley Ben-Adir (the villain of Secret Invasion) & taking place during a 3 or so year period after there was an attempt on his life at his Jamaican compound where he & some others were shot, Ben-Adir relocates to England to gather his thoughts as he preps to record his seminal recording of "Exodus". Back home the violence arose from the political race which was taking place & since Ben-Adir eschewed matters of state, declining to get involved, it opened him up to the drive-by but finding a safe space in Blighty, Ben-Adir recenters himself, preps the album & soon finds fans on the international circuit (we glimpse someone obviously aping Mick Jagger posing w/Ben-Adir for a photo) but while its intimated he wasn't the most loyal of spouses which wife Rita, played by Lashana Lynch, goes w/the flow until she doesn't & his manager, Anthony Welsh, was caught milking an African concert venue for more cash, Ben-Adir decides to return home to perform a restorative concert for peace to quell the masses which proved to be a rousing success. Blessed & shepherded by the Marley family, you can feel the film wanting to dig deeper into the man but since the focus is limited to a chapter of a many layered book, we deal w/what we got letting the music weave in & out of the narrative providing the best sounding soundtrack ever w/o even trying. If you want a deeper delve into the man, watch Kevin McDonald's titular 2012 doc to quench that particular thirst. Also starring Michael Gandolfini (James' son) playing a record exec & Top Boy's Micheal Ward as one Marley's assassins.
Review of Bob Marley: One Love
