Review: Hulu’s ‘Marmalade’ takes a bit to get going, but overall worth it

By Matt Pascarella

Not rated
Runtime: 1 hour, 39 minutes

This movie definitely gives off some “Forrest Gump” vibes early on. A man, Baron, from rural America meets Marmalade, an outgoing woman who’s not from his town. He falls for her almost instantly. Baron’s mom is sick, and the price of her prescription drug just went up. After Baron loses his job with the U.S. Postal Service, he and Marmalade decide to rob a bank. Ultimately, this lands Baron in jail, but who can be trusted?

While this movie dragged a little in the beginning, the ending took me by surprise – which was a good thing.

“Marmalade” stars Joe Keery, Camila Morrone, Aldis Hodge, Amy Warner, Ozioma Akagha, Hans Christopher, and Susan Brava.

The movie opens with Baron (Keery) stepping out of his house and apologizing before being tackled by the police.

He is taken to jail where he tries to convince his cellmate, Otis (Hodge), he needs to escape. Otis says he might be able to make that happen but wants to hear how Baron ended up there.

Baron has $250,000 cash and just wants to be with his girlfriend, Marmalade (Morrone). If Otis helps him escape, the money is his.

As a postal employee, Baron liked getting a peek into other people’s worlds. When he loses his job for refusing to cut his hair and the price of his sick mother’s medicine goes up, he finds himself in need of money fast.

He suddenly meets Marmalade, and they become inseparable. She suggests they rob a bank in order to correct the system that failed Baron and his mom. Marmalade seems to know a little too much about robbing banks, but Baron goes along with it anyway.

They go to a bank two towns over and come up with a multi-step plan.

“Marmalade had her own set of rules for everything,” said Baron.

It doesn’t take long before Baron falls for Marmalade. He learns she’s had a hard life. She convinces him robbing the bank is the only way they can be together. She says it’s him and her against the world.

When the bank robbery goes sideways, Baron takes the fall, with half of the money. However, he and Marmalade are supposed to meet again in the future.

Otis agrees to help Baron after learning more and more about his situation.

When I chose this movie, I thought it would be full of action and comedy. “Marmalade” has a joke or two peppered here and there, but generally wasn’t that funny. Now, as previously mentioned, it is a bit slow to start, but once I was deep into the story, I was hooked and had to see what happened. As for the action portion of the movie, let me say it was not what I expected, but that’s not always a bad thing. Otis was my favorite character. If you have the patience to deal with a less-than-exciting start to this movie, I thought it was worth the wait. I’ll go as far as to say this is a hidden gem. While not overly violent, it is a bit heavy on the language.

Steve Harrington gives it two thumbs up.

Now streaming on Hulu and available to rent. <