Every now and then I hear a concept for a film which immediately strikes me as having the potential to be brilliant. One Night in Miami focuses on one night in 1964 where Mohammed Ali (then Cassius Clay), Malcolm X, Sam Cooke and Jim Brown spent the evening together. Of course the concept relied on a good script and some good performances to bring it all together but fortunately this film has both.
Muhammad Ali is coming off the back of his win against Sonny Liston and is about to make public the fact he’s going to convert to Islam. He still has some doubts over this decision and over the course of the film addresses these doubts. Actor Eli Goree does a fantastic job at portraying the young and particularly brash Cassius Clay, showing his confidence but also showing a hint of vulnerability when needed.
Jim Brown (Aldis Hodge) is just beginning the major career move from the NFL to working in Hollywood as an actor. He is the quietest of the four men which adds a calmness that the others lack- he doesn’t raise his voice like the others do but that doesn’t mean it has nothing to say- there is actually a wisdom behind his eyes which brings the group together.
Sam Cooke is varying his set for black or white audiences and is criticised by Malcolm for not using his music to spread the black empowerment message. He has a major disagreement with Malcolm but it ultimately transpires that their views are not that far apart. Leslie Odom Jr (best known as Aaron Burr in Hamilton) gives perhaps the best of four excellent performances is here. His Cooke has a proper likeability about him but he also gets the full range of anger and sadness as well as being to able to show off his incredible voice.
Malcolm X (Kingsley Ben-Adir) continues to feel frustration over the oppression of black people but is having doubts about the Islam Nation. In some ways, he is the outlier of the group- he doesn’t have a celebrity from his talents, he is a social activist and his calling has given him an anger that the others don’t feel in quite the same way. He is also becoming ever more paranoid and threatened which the others find amusing but in reality he would be dead a year after this night.
Of course, no one can know for sure what the four men talked about on that night so this isn’t supposed to be a portrayal of real events, it’s more on imagining of what might of been said when four incredible people came together. On the whole though it feels like it’s a plausible conversation with the dialogue seeming very realistic. It’s not entirely accurate though, as the timelines of the four men’s lives are mixed about a little bit in order to add a little more drama but it’s not done to an extent that the plausibility of the film is ruined.
The script, which Kemp Powers’ adapted from his own play, is excellent, very dialogue heavy yet it’s never simply just four men talking, it’s always more powerful than that. The direction by Regina King, her first feature film, is also excellent- she manages to keep the close-knit feel of the play whilst still insuring that the film never feels claustrophobic as direct stage to film adaption sometimes can.
The four central performances are all utterly superb. I thought Ben-Adir’s Malcolm X was especially fantastic but for me the most valuable player was Leslie Odom Jr, who gives a stunning performance as well as providing some stunning singing. All four actors have the potential to be nominated for Oscars, their performances are that good.
All in all, this film contains a fantastic script based on a real life event and has four incredible actor is giving the performances of their careers so far.
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