Jimi: All is by my Side
Director: John Ridley
Starring: Andre Benjamin, Imogen Poots, Andrew Buckley
118 mins; Class 15;
Eden Cinemas

I am not a music connoisseur by any stretch of the imagination, although Jimi Hendrix needs no introduction. Yet, apart from recognising a couple of his tracks, my knowledge of his life or career would stop there.

Any hopes that this biopic would change that are dashed. Although it effectively charts the years leading up to the explosion of the Hendrix phenomenon onto the global musical stage, Jimi: All is by my Side left me none the wiser as to what made Hendrix so great.

The multi-tasker Andre Benjamin – actor/rapper among his many titles – stars as Hendrix. The film covers the years when the guitarist was discovered jamming in a bar by Linda Keith (Imogen Poots), then the girlfriend of the Rolling Stones’ Keith Richards. Richards is completely taken by this young guitarist, and arranges a meeting with the Animals’ bassist Chas Chandler (Andrew Buckley), who persuades the Hendrix to go to London in an attempt to launch his career.

As he takes in the swinging scene that was London in the 1960s, Hendrix rubs shoulders with the likes of Eric Clapton and The Beatles while he embarks on his career.

His time in the spotlight was all too brief

Writer/director John Ridley, who won a screenwriting Oscar in February for 12 Years a Slave, does not take any wrong steps in creating this biopic.

He focusesin detail on the two years leading up to the Monterey Festival in 1967 where Hendrix finally achieved fame.

Yet, the script fails to get deeper under the skin of his protagonist than what we can get from any biography – a difficult childhood, a clear musical talent, the discovery by a fan in a bar, a talent nurtured by a well-known musician, and finally, the big leagues.

Hendrix’s rise to fame was meteor-ic, yet his time in the spotlight was all too brief, his life and remarkable career cut short by an accidental overdose at age 27 yet there is no sense of what is to come in the events that unfold on the screen.

The story overall seems more intent on exploring Hendrix’s relationship with the women in his life – Kathy Etchingham (Hayley Atwell), who replaced Linda Keith in his affections, and Ida (Ruth Negga), an outspoken black activist who befriends him.