Between the perfect casting of Andre "3000" Benjamin in the lead role, and the writer of 12 Years A Slave returning to the director’s chair for the first time in almost twenty years, All Is By My Side definitely had an Oscar-sounding pedigree behind it. A little bit of investigating into the film though, and all of that strips away, such as the fact that the Hendrix Estate didn’t allow the filmmakers to use any of Jimi’s own music, or the fact that most of the people who knew him personally say that this is a highly fictionalised take on his story. Plus the writer of 12 Years A Slave is also responsible for the likes of Undercover Brother and some episodes of The Fresh Prince Of Bel-Air.
It starts off in 1966 with Jimi playing guitar as part of a group to an audience barely consisting of double digits, where he’s discovered by Linda Keith (Imogen Poots), who then brings him to London to refine his sound and show off his talents. He’s barely in the UK a day before he’s moved on to another woman – Kathy Etchingham (Hayley Atwell) – and begins putting The Jimi Hendrix Experience together.
From there, and even before then, All Is By My Side does a fairly terrible job of telling us who Jimi Hendrix actually is, coming off more of a reactionary cypher to the women in his life than actually having a personality of his own. None of this is Benjamin’s fault, who nails the softly spoken naval gazing aspect perfectly, but is never really given much more to do than look stoned and play the guitar. Same goes for Poots and Atwell, and a late in the day Ruth Nega as yet another potential love interest, who all do well within their confined roles.
No, the blame must fall firmly at writer/director John Ridley’s feet, between his lack of real insight and limited back of technical and story-telling tricks; rapid-fire edits, sudden sound drop-outs and overlapping conversations are all used ad nauseum.
All show and no tell, this is passable entertainment, but far from the story that a legend like Hendrix deserves.
