Keir O’Donnell’s ‘MARMALADE’ (2024) – Movie Review

I’ve always loved a good star-crossed lovers story and I enjoy crime thrillers. This was much of the appeal of checking out Marmalade, the directorial debut of actor Keir O’Donnell. The film combines both genres, telling a tale of two lovers separated by freedom and prison.

Synopsis

Follows a man in jail who narrates the colorful tale of a romantic bank heist to his cunning cellmate to escape and reunite with the alluring love of his life.

Marmalade was written and directed by Keir O’Donnell. The film stars Joe Keery (Stranger Things), Camila Morrone (Death Wish 2018), Aldis Hodge (Black Adam), Ozioma Akagha (Teen Titans Go), Hans Christopher (Animal Kingdom), and Wayne Duvall (Werewolves Within).

Marmalade manages to be a lot of things: a crime thriller, a comedy, and a romance. It accomplishes this extremely well. The story is always interesting and full of twists and turns that you never quite expect, the interaction between the characters is frequently funny, and the romance can be rather sweet, though its obvious from the start that Joe Keery’s Baron is way more into Camila Morrone’s Marmalade than she is into him.

The characters are deeper than surface level, containing many unraveling layers to be revealed as the film goes along. I really enjoyed Joe Keery’s performance. He starts out as a basically a small town idiot mama’s boy who just wants to do what it takes to take care of his mother, who is the only person he has, at least until Marmalade drives into the picture. Keery is incredibly funny and easy to root for. Camila Morrone is a force of nature as Marmalde. She’s beautiful but crazy, definitely a few cards shy of a full deck. She easily manipulates the obviously slower witted and impressionable Baron, who has never quite seen anyone like her before.

I’ve always enjoyed Aldis Hodge, ever since he was on Leverage. His performance as Baron’s cellmate Otis, who plans to help him escape and reunite with his lady love, is definitely a high point of the film. He’s funny, he keeps the story flowing when Baron tends to get lost in the little moments, and his a man with his own pasts and secrets.

The story is a lot of fun, moving between various genres and reveals with ease, while never losing its audience. This reminds me of one of my favorites: Lucky Number Slevin, a film where nothing is ever as it appears.

Final Thoughts

Marmalade is a refreshing take on the comedic crime thriller. It has a wonderful cast, led by the incomparable Joe Keery. Its incredibly fun, frequently funny and has an engaging story with a ton of twists and turns. If you dig this sort of film you should love Marmalade.