The more I see biopics of famous musicians or artists, the less I’m certain about why one works and another doesn’t. Sometimes a terrific central performance can save a movie from its own problems (Andra Day in “The United States vs. Billie Holiday”). Sometimes it can’t (Tom Hiddleston’s Hank Williams in “I Saw the Light”). Sometimes a movie goes for style and nerve (“Sid and Nancy”) and has the performances to take you there. Other times, it’s mostly hot air and pretty pictures (“The Doors”) and you don’t believe the stuff that actually happened, never mind the customary percentage of fabrications.
With “Bob Marley: One Love,” what do we have? An oddly cautious slice of the great Jamaican reggae star’s life, focusing on 1976-78, its story hanging on the peg of Marley’s 1978 One Love Peace concert in Kingston, in the thick of his homeland’s civil war. Marley received his melanoma cancer diagnosis the year before; he died in 1981 at the age of 36.
Like a lot of biopics, this one came to fruition with the full and presumably watchful participation of the Bob Marley estate. Three Marleys served as producers. Four credited writers worked on the script, directed by Reinaldo Marcus Green, lately of the Williams family valentine “King Richard.”
The Marley biopic this could’ve been — and here and there, nearly is — jumps up in one particular scene. It’s an argument between Marley, played by Kingsley Ben-Adir (“Peaky Blinders,” “One Night in Miami”) and his wife and backup singer, Rita, played by Lashana Lynch (“The Woman King,” “Captain Marvel”). At this point in the narrative, the international reggae, ska, rocksteady and Rastafari pied piper has survived an assassination attempt in Jamaica and decamped, with his band, to London. Rita has joined him, and their marriage appears to be floating, uncertainly, on a cloud of distraction, ganja and stardom bubbles that aren’t quite big enough for two.
The confrontation, in an alley at night, cracks open a lot: Bob’s infidelity, his neglect, Rita’s burdens and resentments. Most biopics have at least one scene like it. (“Maestro” has one, and it too is the best thing in the movie.) Here, Lynch and Ben-Adir go to town, but not in a go-for-broke way. It feels like real life and takes its time. Most of the film restlessly hustles through its paces, eager to get on to the next scene, or the latest flashback to Bob’s childhood. This one feels and is different: It stretches out and lets the actors build it, gradually.
There are good things beyond that scene. The Jamaican location work pays off in every shot. A casual rehearsal sequence, in London, where Marley makes his hugely successful “Exodus” album, finds the band winging it, engagingly, on “I Shot the Sheriff.” The movie’s a little light on performance footage overall, which is a somewhat peculiar limitation.
It’s also a little light on character investigation — angles, perspectives, thoughts and inquiries regarding what made Bob Marley tick. All worldwide musical phenomena carry with them some enigmatic quality that encourages, deliberately or not, a kind of adoring guesswork on behalf of fans. In “Bob Marley: One Love,” both as written and acted, Marley himself remains more cipher than enigma.
So it’s Lynch’s show, basically. Director Green’s film feels hastily cut, or at least extensively negotiated, let’s say, in the editing phase. But if the editing ended up getting more of her performance on the screen, well, it’s appreciated — even if the movie only sporadically does the title character justice.
“Bob Marley: One Love” — 2 stars (out of 4)
MPA rating: PG-13 (for marijuana use and smoking throughout, some violence and brief strong language)
Running time: 1:47
How to watch: Premieres in theaters Feb. 14
