Film Journal 2024: Bob Marley: One Love
Directed by Reinaldo Marcus Green
A rough and uneven first half finds its footing in the final 40 minutes. I think part of the issue is that it struggles early on to figure out what kind of film it wants to be and how to tell what is a bit of a sprawling story. We get misplaced flashbacks, and the potential to focus on the civil unrest paired with the decision to ultimately keep our attention firmly and directly on Marley’s progression and the song writing. It doesn’t help that the compelling aspects of the story is the stuff that surrounds Marley, including the wider Jamaican culture, and where we only get nods to its lingering presence, the vast majority of the first half is spent simply moving Marley’s career from point a to point b.
Marley’s story is most interesting once it approaches the climatic moment, which definitely benefits the back half of the film. That’s where we start getting the richer character development stuff and relationship drama, along with some more cinematic choices.
The spirit of the movement is there though, and it’s a message the feels timely in terms of the different political tensions right now around the world.
I will add, my theater experience was interesting. There were a lot of young people, which was somewhat surprising, and a mix of fascination and restlessness, including some hostilities. I heard one person after the viewing suggest that they needed to apply Marley’s message to that circumstance. If a film can evoke that, that’s certainly worth something.
The Stories of my Life 