Film: Bob Marley - One Love

I'm back in Ireland for the weekend. Had a bit of fun getting here, though - what with the Stansted Express completely failing to announce any of the stations, and a display that just had "Liverpool Street - this train terminates here" the whole way! As I mentioned to someone later, we had to peer out the windows to see where we were. As he replied, "Not so easy in the dark!" And then, in the airport, the sign for the gate was turned the wrong way around, showing the priority line on the wrong side. He went to alert this fact to the staff at the gate - zero interest. They did go so far as to mention, when they made their next announcement, where priority was..

Today's film was - finally - Bob Marley: One Love, whose trailer I liked, and of which I also heard good things. Handiest convenient showing time is in the Odeon Limerick, so off I went there - nice n cheap too. Not to mention, I was spared city centre traffic! I'll say one thing about the cinema though - they could have done with turning the lights on for us as we were going in! I had to turn on the light on my phone to find my seat.. and this was well before any ads started, never mind the film..

The film only covers the last few years of his life, starting with the Smile Jamaica concert, painted in this as his idea to unite the people, divided by the upcoming election. It seems that, in reality, though, it was a government idea. Anyway, he was shot beforehand, which prompted his subsequent move to London. We see some of the development of the Exodus album, and his eventual return to Jamaica for the One Love concert.. and along the way, we learn about his past through flashbacks, and about his faith - and the diagnosis of the cancer that ultimately killed him.

I'd heard the film was good, and it is. The Jamaican accent used by almost all the characters can be a little hard to understand sometimes - and although they were disparaging of the record company executive who couldn't understand it, I sympathised with him! (Played by Michael Gandolfini, alongside James Norton, who portrays Chris Blackwell of Island Records, who around the same time signed a young band called U2..) But ultimately, the film rests on the charisma of Kingsley Ben-Adir, who plays Marley - he carries the whole thing. And, of course, there's the gorgeous music.. enjoy the music, you'll love the film. Highly recommended. BTW, as I watched the credits roll, I noticed several famous names listed as producers - Brad Pitt and Ziggy Marley, Bob's eldest son, stood out.

Tomorrow is Mother's Day, so I'm flying back a day later, taking Monday as holiday. If she let me go to the cinema tomorrow, I was thinking of Imaginary - in the same cinema. In the meantime, however, The Hideout group posted a couple of hilarious YouTube reviews of it, absolutely panning it, on their WhatsApp channel - so I guess that's that. I'll just leave it and hope some more decent films have come out by the time I get back.

On Tuesday, back with CT at the Americana! This time, it's a jazz night.. which I should get more of an experience of than that magic show.. and this time, I'll know to starve myself beforehand!

On Wednesday, another of those multi-Meetup socials.. I've signed up with The London Movie Club, and we're off to the BFI Riverfront Balcony Bar again! Excellent venue.

And on Thursday, back again with Up in the Cheap Seats - this time, for Casserole, at the Arcola.

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