Four titanic characters from 20th century American history air grievances with the society they live in and, sometimes brutally, with each other, in a tiny motel room in Miami. One Night in Miami is the directorial debut of renowned character actor Regina King, who won an Oscar for her breathtaking performance in If Beale Street Could Talk and is adapted by Kemp Powers from his 2013 stage play. This is a high-concept, naturally theatrical premise that Malcom. X (Kingsley Ben-Adir), Cassius Clay (Eli Goree), Jim Brown (Aldis Hodge) and Sam Cooke (Leslie Odom Jr.) spent an evening together on the cusp of their ascendance to defining the Civil Rights movement for a generation.
The film begins by introducing all four characters individually; while establishing the personalities and the lives of the characters well, it is ultimately schematic and structurally unsophisticated. It creates a clunky, meandering start that feels sluggish, like the opening to a mini-series.
King and Kemp excellently frame 60s America as two separate racial worlds coexisting in the same place. In his introduction, Jim Brown, famed NFL star, is clearly suspicious of his acquaintance Mr. Carlton’s apparent friendliness. They are confirmed when walking to the inside of his house, Brown is told with a staggering breezy casualness that he isn’t allowed in because of his race.
On February 25th, 1964 Cassius Clay surprised the boxing world by defeating reigning World Heavyweight Champion, Sonny Liston. This is the frame which Kemp uses to bring the four characters together, and while the central premise that on this night they would spend the night in a motel room is obviously fictional, it doesn’t feel contrived. Despite a meandering start, once the film settles into the motel room, it becomes a riveting depiction of friendship and the emotional strain of living in what was an effectively apartheid state.
Kemp’s script creates a useful distance between the thoughtful but crackling firebrand Malcom. X and the successful, smooth Sam Cooke. The long argument between them is the centre of the film; a beautifully acted distillation of the discourse that framed the Civil Rights movement and continues right through to the BLM protests – revolution or integration. Malcom wants to overthrow everything, while Cooke uses his superior cultural and business to beat ignorant white people at their own game. Malcom has the ultimate conviction, but Cooke lives in a world he never could; if you are on the soapbox in your own house you will never live the life you are fighting for.
One Night in Miami is a stylish, subtly engrossing film that deftly weaves the relationship dynamics of the four immeasurable icons and their place in the fight against the social catastrophe of 60s America. King’s direction is confident but classical, focusing on acting rather than visual flair. Four excellent performances drive the film forward, giving us a genuine glimpse into the interior lives of icons who became symbols instead of humans.
4 stars
Image Credit: TheMovieDB
