Bob Marley: One Love movie review: no redemption song for this cliché-riddled airbrushing
by Hamish MacBain
Feb 17, 2024
2 minutes
The thing about these endless big music biopics is, no matter how schmaltzly and hideously ‘authorised’ and not that great they may be, if you have a lead who is the spit of the subject and a baker’s dozen of planet-aligning bangers – which Bob Marley most certainly does – then you probably don’t need to worry about a thing.
And so to One Love’s first problem, which is too pretty-boy good-looking to play someone whose striking, but far from conventionally handsome face is as globally known as Marley’s. It’s not that he can’t act. Ben-Adir’s (and for that matter everyone in the film’s) patois is satisfyingly thick and convincing, plus he’s got the electrified stage dance down perfectly.
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