'One Night In Miami' A Review

 One Night In Miami is a drama about a fictionalized meeting between Malcom X(Kingsley Ben-Adir), Muhammad Ali(Eli Goree), Jim Brown(Aldis Hodge), and Sam Cooke(Leslie Odom Jr.) on the night Ali became the heavyweight champion after his defeat of Sonny Liston. Adapted from the stage play of the same name the majority of the action takes place at Malcom X's motel after the fight as the reflect and discuss the Movement and each of their roles within it.

Hodge and Odom Jr. have a quite confidence, an assurance in their roles, they dig a bit deeper to give the characters heft and dimension and are clearly having fun. They feel like fully flushed out characters, not impressions, and ground the film. Goree and Ben-Adir aren't quite as successful having, arguably, bigger/more well known shoes to fill as well as having to grapple with the legacy of Will Smith and Denzel Washington(respectively) who gave defining performances in the same roles in the recent past. They do well but either in the performance, or from the script, much of their dialogue/monologues don't quite hit the mark. The script, no doubt effective on the stage, rings a bit odd in the context of film with much of the subtext being rendered in straight text. There isn't a lot of subtly in the conveyance of the ideas and as such the characters aren't as nuanced as one would expect and there is a lot of argument which, again, would be effective(even necessary) in the context of the play but translates as a bit clunky in film.

Director Regina King injects much needed movement into the story for what is essentially(as most plays are) a one location/limited location narrative she cuts and pans, the camera zooms and swoops, giving some much needed momentum and injection to the pacing. The soundtrack is great, with some really stupendous diegetic performances by Odom Jr. but the sum isn't quite as great as it's parts. A sound freshman effort from King but perhaps too faithful of an adaptation to really soar.

An interesting idea with a solid production but lacking some magic and finesse in the narrative execution.

Currently streaming on Amazon.

Rent It.