'Bob Marley: One Love' review: Kingsley Ben-Adir shines in uneven biopic

Feb. 13—"There are films," director Reinaldo Marcus Green says in the production notes for "Bob Marley: One Love," and then there are films about Bob Marley."

This film about Bob Marley — hitting theaters on Valentine's Day — is the third movie in a row in which the "Monsters and Men" director has told a tale based on the life of a real person, following 2020's "Joe Bell" and 2021's "King Richard." This latest endeavor, which Green says is an extremely personal film for him, falls in terms of quality somewhere in the chasm between the highly forgettable former and the Academy Award-nominated latter.

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Focusing mainly on roughly three years in the life of the late legendary musical pioneer, "One Love" is only so strong narratively; as with myriad other biopics, it struggles to tell a fact-based story that is consistently engrossing.

On the other hand, Kingsley Ben-Adir is a convincing and compelling Marley, the actor bringing the first name in reggae to life on the screen to such a believable degree that you can't question all the devotion and work he is said to have brought to the enormous task.

"One Love" begins in Jamaica in 1976, when the island country is experiencing a great deal of violence generated by feuding gangs as an important election approaches.

Bob decides to perform a concert in the promotion of peace and unity but, shortly before it is set to happen, his home in Kingston is attacked by seven armed men, who shoot him, his wife, Rita (Lashana Lynch) and two others. (In a thematically important moment, Bob and the man who will shoot him in the chest and arm first exchange a long look at one another.)

Not only do all three survive, but the show goes on, with Bob understandably still haunted by what has just happened — illustrated by perhaps the film's clumsiest sequence — and soon self-exiles to London to work on new music.

He crafts what Time magazine in 1999 will name the best album of the century, 1977's "Exodus," which boasts enduring songs such as "Jamming," "One Love / People Get Ready," "Three Little Birds" and the title track, the inspiration for which we witness.

It is during this largely effective stretch of "One Love" that Marley's work as an artist takes center stage. Even more time being devoted to him shaping the music millions around the globe will come to adore would have been welcomed.

Next comes a European tour, with venues selling out — and growing larger — as the album climbs the charts.

But all is not well, as an increasingly frustrated Rita challenges him in a fiery scene and a medical issue grows more concerning.

With a screenplay credited to Terence Winter, Frank E. Flowers, Zach Baylin and Green, "Bob Marley: One Love" stalls enough to cause the occasional peek at the ol' wristwatch — not great for a film clocking in at well under two hours. Flashback scenes featuring Quan-Dajai Henriques and Nia Ashi, as teenage versions of Bob and Rita, that seek to expand upon the film's otherwise narrow window into Marley's life add context but little else to the affair.

Again, you can't lay that on the feet of Ben-Adir, whose small-screen work includes "The OA" and Marvel's "Secret Invasion" and whose prominent film work includes portraying Malcolm X in "One Night in Miami" and one of the Kens in "Barbie."

Here, his is a complete performance, the actor — who by no means is husky — having lost a meaningful amount of weight to portray the slender singer. And while much of Marley's actual music is used in the film, Ben-Adir has said he was surprised how much of his vocal work was left in the film during various acoustic scenes. Marley the singer Ben-Adir is not, but the work he put into sounding enough like the legend is commendable. Ultimately, though, it's the Marley-like spirit radiating from him on the screen that is crucial to "One Love" working as well as it does.

Even with the inclusion of Ben-Adir and the likewise highly talented Lynch ("Captain Marvel," "The Woman King"), "Bob Marley: One Love" is not a film chock full of Hollywood stars. Instead, its cast includes myriad Jamaican musicians, which is admirable, as is its employment of a crew of more than 250 Jamaicans and filming in significant Jamaican locations, such as Port Royal.

Counted among the producers of "One Love" are Marley's children Ziggy and Cedella Marley and his widow, Rita, and the production's goal was, as the aforementioned production notes state, "a portrait of a musical colossus whose message of togetherness would make him the target of murderous forces, and one of a husband, a father and a rebel. A man of foibles and challenges as anyone, but a force of change who did so much for the ones and the world he loved until the end."

It achieves that laudable aim, and its love for its highly spiritual subject shines through from its first moments to its last.

None of that changes the fact that Marley deserves at least a slightly stronger film about his life and legacy.

'Bob Marley: One Love'

Where: Theaters.

When: Feb. 14.

Rated: PG-13 for marijuana use and smoking throughout, some violence and brief strong language.

Runtime: 1 hour, 47 minutes.

Stars (of four): 2.5.