Marmalade – A Bumpy Ride Guided By Energetic Performances

The directorial debut of actor Keir O’Donnell, Marmalade follows Baron (Keery), a recently imprisoned man who strikes up a friendship with his new cellmate Otis (Hodge). As Baron and Otis hatch a plan to escape together, Baron begins to recall the story of how he met the love of his life Marmalade (Morrone), and the scheme they cooked up to rob a bank in order to care for Baron’s sick mother and to give them the life they’ve always dreamed of. An entertaining, quirky, and stylish comedic crime thriller, it is one that is sure to surprise and satisfy fans of the genre, or its leads. However, while it is an impressive enough debut that succeeds at subverting expectations on more than a few occasions, it is also a bit of a mixed bag that never quite comes together as effectively as one would hope.

Keery is one of the most charismatic actors working today but hasn’t always been given the best of roles, so it is nice to see him with a juicy lead role. His performance as Baron is without a doubt a highlight. He has an immense likeability that audiences can’t help but root and care for Baron despite his questionable actions throughout the film. As great as he was, Morrone arguably steals the show. She has a magnetic screen presence like few others, and she absolutely makes Marmalade her own. She and Keery have genuinely great chemistry, and how they sell that romance makes it easy to become invested in them and how well they work together. Hodge is great as well as Otis, a role that is a lot different and more fleshed out than audiences would initially expect. Without giving anything away, the story offers several twists and turns, and goes in surprising and unpredictable directions.

That being said, this is a film that is much easier to appreciate and respect than to fully enjoy watching. It has all the right pieces to be something special and truly stand out within the crime/comedy genre, but those pieces just don’t come together in a satisfying way. Its later reveals are unexpected, but they don’t leave much of an impact for those not invested in the film’s story. Aside from the romance angle, the first half struggled while the film as a whole occasionally struggled to balance its many tones. Making up for its first half problems, by the time its improved second half comes, it is frankly too little too late to the point that audiences will find themselves wishing that the first half delivered the same kind of energy and urgency. Meanwhile, the film’s ending is poignant and adds more layers to what came before; however, it is a shame it doesn’t work and fails to reach the intended impact O’Donnell was clearly going for.

At the end of the day, Marmalade is a tough one to discuss because on one hand, it will likely work for a large part of audiences who will almost certainly enjoy going on a chaotic ride with its quirky characters, but on the other hand, it feels like an amalgamation of other, better films that never finds its footing. While Joe Keery, Camila Morrone, and Aldis Hodge deliver some truly great performances and Keir O’Donnell definitely shows promise as a director, but unfortunately this particular effort simply didn’t work for this reviewer in the way that it has for others.

still courtesy of Vortex Media

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Connor Carey

www.connorsmoviereviews.com/