Bob Marley: One Love
Paramount Pictures | Release Date: February 14, 2024 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
43
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 36 Critic Reviews
Positive:
4
Mixed:
27
Negative:
5
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
75
Original-CinKim HughesFeb 14, 2024
Bob Marley: One Love does not give a documentary’s worth of information and analysis into one of the 20th century’s most interesting, beloved performers. And yes, its approach is formulaic. But it celebrates Marley’s charisma and influence, and his music, which sounds as vital today as ever. Fair trade. Read full review
75
Chicago Sun-TimesRichard RoeperFeb 14, 2024
Given the revolutionary nature of Marley’s music and the often-chaotic state of his life, it’s reasonable that some might find this to be a disappointingly formulaic handling of the material, with only a few stylistic flourishes that take place mostly in the flashback sequences. Still, this is strong work, showcasing the indelible legacy of an artist who was gone far too soon. Read full review
70
Film ThreatMichael Talbot-HaynesFeb 18, 2024
This is exactly the kind of movie that improves on subsequent viewings, allowing you to enjoy it more once you accept the narrative on its own terms. Read full review
63
Movie NationRoger MooreFeb 13, 2024
If this isn’t the musical bio pic we would have hoped this truly larger than life figure deserved, it is perfectly serviceable. The performances ensure that there’s a charismatic, recognizably-human icon at its center, flawed and passionate and downright messianic at times. Read full review
60
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Brad WheelerFeb 16, 2024
Although One Love is not a great music biopic, it serves as an acceptable portrait of the man. Read full review
60
Screen RantMae AbdulbakiFeb 15, 2024
Bob Marley: One Love won't knock your socks off, but there is enough care put into crafting the narrative that turns it into a lovely viewing experience overall. Read full review
60
Time OutIan FreerFeb 9, 2024
Bob Marley: One Love is a strange mixture of the authentic and the broad. Taking place in a perma-fug of ganja smoke, director Reinaldo Marcus Green’s (King Richard) intermittently engaging portrait of the reggae superstar is shot through with sincere intentions, but too often leans into the trite. Read full review
60
EmpireOlly RichardsFeb 9, 2024
A by-the-numbers biography, this sheds little new light on an icon but features a soaring performance from Kingsley Ben-Adir. Read full review
60
Rolling StoneDavid FearFeb 8, 2024
Director Reinaldo Marcus Green (King Richard) does his duty by delivering eureka moments, a few greatest-hits sequences, some personal drama. The result is a perfectly functional look at a legend, one that will definitely make you want to put Exodus back into heavy playlist rotation. It’s still not enough. Read full review
60
The Hollywood ReporterLovia GyarkyeFeb 8, 2024
[Ben-Adir] wholly conjures Marley’s charisma while also teasing the musician’s sense of isolation, stemming from a childhood marked by abandonment. His compelling performance enlivens a film that otherwise feels like it’s perpetually struggling to take off. Read full review
60
The TelegraphRobbie CollinFeb 8, 2024
It’s a gorgeous performance overall – [Ben-Adir's] Marley is so alive to the potential of music as both an art form and cause, it’s as if you can see the creative energy flowing up from the earth through his legs to the tips of his fingers and dreadlocks. Read full review
50
ReelViewsJames BerardinelliFeb 16, 2024
For nearly two hours, the movie plods along, offering little beyond hackneyed dialogue that can’t be gleaned from a quick read-through of Marley’s Wikipedia entry. Read full review
50
Wall Street JournalKyle SmithFeb 15, 2024
If the film is ambitious, it is also inert. Read full review
50
Chicago TribuneMichael PhillipsFeb 15, 2024
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. Read full review
50
Boston GlobeOdie HendersonFeb 14, 2024
Bob Marley: One Love opts to print the legend, but it will just make you want to listen to “Legend.” Read full review
50
Austin ChronicleCarys AndersonFeb 14, 2024
The next generation won’t learn the artist’s whole life story from this biopic, but they just might be inspired to do some Googling after the credits roll. Read full review
50
Los Angeles TimesKatie WalshFeb 14, 2024
Though the movie promises to tell a culturally and politically specific story, what could have been daring is ultimately trite, relying on familiar music biopic tropes. Read full review
50
Washington PostMichael O'SullivanFeb 13, 2024
Director Reinaldo Marcus Green, who co-wrote the screenplay with Terence Winter, Frank E. Flowers and Zach Baylin, has constructed a work that suffers from the same tunnel vision as other movies of this ilk. Read full review
50
The Associated PressJake CoyleFeb 8, 2024
Though “One Love” drifts into increasingly conventional biopic scenes, its spirit remains fairly true to Marley — enough, at least, that you overlook some of its faults. Read full review
50
Screen DailyTim GriersonFeb 8, 2024
The central performance has a likeable, modest charm, and King Richard director Reinaldo Marcus Green resists the typical, unwieldy cradle-to-grave biopic narrative approach. Yet he fails to breathe much life into this underwhelming drama. Read full review
50
VarietyOwen GleibermanFeb 8, 2024
The point of the new biopic mode was to reveal totemic figures in a more complex way. “One Love” flirts with complexity but slides into the banality of hero worship. Read full review
50
IndieWireVikram MurthiFeb 8, 2024
"One Love” plods through an inert, and-then-this-happened structure that neglects to illuminate or entertain. It’s watchable only because of performances from Kingsley Ben-Adir and Lashana Lynch, who admirably attempt to imbue Bob and Rita Marley, respectively, with genuine life absent from the rest of the film. Read full review
45
CNNBrian LowryFeb 14, 2024
What “One Love” doesn’t do, ultimately, is provide enough material to distinguish the movie from the contours of an authorized biography or documentary. In that sense, the film pays tribute to Marley’s work but winds up hampered by a love for its subject that works against its ability to deliver major insights or rock-star-level drama. Read full review
40
The Observer (UK)Wendy IdeFeb 17, 2024
What becomes painfully clear is the fact that Bob Marley deserves a better biopic. Still, Lynch’s magnetic presence, and a heartstopping rendition of Redemption Song, almost justify the price of admission. Read full review
40
ABC NewsPeter TraversFeb 16, 2024
The great Kingsley Ben-Adir catches the spirit of the Jamaican legend who became the face and voice of reggae and the Rastafarian conscience of his people. But this safe, shallow, family-sanctioned biopic only gives us snippets of songs and scraps of a life. Read full review
40
ColliderNate RichardFeb 15, 2024
Watching the movie is like seeing a concert from a seat in the back corner. You're still there for the music, but you have the view furthest away from the artist himself. Read full review
40
The Irish TimesDonald ClarkeFeb 14, 2024
Like the Whitney film, One Love suffers greatly from a looming whiff of authorisation. Read full review
40
The New York TimesAmy NicholsonFeb 14, 2024
If the movie succeeds at anything, it’s in capturing Marley’s lingering spell on fans. Read full review
40
Total FilmNeil SmithFeb 8, 2024
Capturing Marley’s essence on screen proves an impossible task in a biopic that veers towards hagiography. Read full review
40
The IndependentClarisse LoughreyFeb 8, 2024
Marley, as played by Kingsley Ben-Adir, is presented as a centrifugal force in Jamaican art, culture and political thought, but the film also threatens to flatten him into just another tortured male genius. Read full review
40
The GuardianPeter BradshawFeb 8, 2024
This is a vacuum-sealed package of fan-orthodoxy that never takes off. The euphoria and uplift aren’t there. Read full review
38
Slant MagazineDerek SmithFeb 13, 2024
This shaggy, disjointed film is less interested in the complexities of Marley’s personal or professional life than it is in presenting him as a hero and an inspiration. Read full review
30
New York Magazine (Vulture)Bilge EbiriFeb 15, 2024
The result is a shallow picture book populated with cutouts where people should be. Read full review
25
RogerEbert.comRobert DanielsFeb 14, 2024
A flattened biopic devoid of a perspective or originality. It follows a long list of musical origin stories that feel designed to sell new pressings of former hits more than tell an engaging story. Read full review
25
The A.V. ClubMurtada ElfadlFeb 8, 2024
Unfortunately director Reinaldo Marcus Green, along with his co-screenwriters Terence Winter, Frank E. Flowers and Zach Baylin, waste this opportunity and Marley’s legacy with a rather limp story full of cliches and perplexing choices. Read full review
20
Little White LiesDavid JenkinsFeb 8, 2024
It’s a biographical film where, to ask “why?” in regard to Marley’s sometimes obscurely-motivated actions would risk placing him in an ambiguous light. And so we instead trot through a series of highly manicured and stage-managed Wiki hit points and pause every few minutes for a musical interlude. Read full review
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