MUCH as biopics are - and will always be - big business in Hollywood, it’s never a good idea to tackle an icon while their nearest and dearest are still alive. The interference can be chronic.

Take Lawrence of Arabia, for instance. AW Lawrence - TE’s brother - hated the David Lean film so much that he refused to allow it to share the title of the very memoir upon which it was based. It was with similar ire that the Tolkien Estate disowned Dome Karukoski’s 2019 biopic of JR Tolkien. Only last year, meanwhile, Sofia Coppola’s Priscilla Presley offering was barred access to the entire Elvis back catalogue for its soundtrack. The Presleys had left the building.

And yet, a warm reception from the family does not always a great film make. All too often, these are the biopics with the loosest relationship with the truth in the ‘based on a true story’ tag. The ones that skate over the rough. Think: Bohemian Rhapsody or the recent Whitney Houston flick, I Wanna Dance with Somebody. The preservation of image matters where residuals are involved.

Bob Marley: One Love - released this week, somewhat tenuously, on Valentine’s Day - falls hard into this camp. Grand performances and fine staging do much to soften subscript edges. Even the title of the film shut downs any notion of an open dialogue on Marley’s penchant for extramarital womanising. This one’s all about the icon.

It would, of course, be churlish to deny Marley such a status. He is, after all, the globally-recognised face of reggae, Rastafarianism, Jamaica and - to many - world peace. If anyone has demonstrated the power of music in the last 100 years, it’s Bob Marley.

Kingsley Ben-Adir dons the don’s dreadlocks for One Love, which comes directed by King Richard’s Reinaldo Marcus Green. Opening in a hotly political 1976, the film charts the journey of self-discovery that Marley would embark upon in the wake of his near-assassination just three days before he was due to perform at the Smile Jamaica concert in Kingston.

Ben-Adir is, at least, terrific. His resemblance to Marley may be limited but such concerns are outweighed by the conviction of his efforts. Lashana Lynch, too, impresses as Rita Marley, a figure ever so slightly more willing to challenge her husband than the film around her.