Review: Marshall

Thurgood Marshall shall be remembered, amongst other things, as the Supreme Court's first African-American justice. Before his historic appointment, Marshall was a tireless advocate for civil rights, arguing several cases before the Supreme Court, winning all but three of the 32 cases he argued before the highest court in the land.

Marshall, which serves as an origin story for this esteemed figure, takes place in 1940 when Marshall (Chadwick Boseman) was beginning his tenure as the sole lawyer working for the NAACP. Traveling by rail all over the United States, Marshall fought for black Americans who were falsely accused of crimes they did not commit. His next case seems not especially unusual in that yet another black man has been accused by a white woman. The particulars are these: a married white woman named Eleanor Strubing (Kate Hudson) has accused her black chauffeur Joseph Spell (Sterling K. Brown) of raping her and then attempting to kill her by throwing her off the side of a bridge.

"I never touched that woman," Spell insists upon meeting his lawyers, Marshall and Sam Friedman (Josh Gad), a local insurance lawyer who finds himself Spell's lead counsel when the judge (James Cromwell) agrees to admit Marshall but on the condition that Marshall not speak at all during the trial. Thus is one of the greatest legal minds relegated to the sidelines and thus a biopic supposedly about Thurgood Marshall is rendered as an odd couple courtroom drama. It's a peculiar if somewhat understandable tactic for the filmmakers to take, though it does undermine its central character since Marshall essentially acts as Friedman's mentor. The dominant arc then slightly favours Friedman over Marshall, which unintentionally dilutes both Marshall's story as well as the race relations that underpin the narrative.

Courtroom dramas, much to everyone's benefit, are inherently interesting and so Marshall carries intrigue and a certain amount of urgency despite the familiarity and ordinariness of execution. There's obviously something more between Spell and Strubing than either of them would care to admit, and it's that something that Marshall hones in on and attempts to reveal. Both Hudson and Brown get opportunities to display solid dramatics during their individual testimonies; Gad and Boseman also deliver skill not only in their own performances but to the complex relationship between Friedman and Marshall.

Yet...there's something profoundly lacking in Marshall. It feels nothing more than serviceable and run-of-the-mill, qualities which in no way apply to the man to whom it pays middling homage but who most definitely merits a far more rousing biopic than this.

Marshall

Directed by: Reginald Hudlin

Written by: Jacob Koskoff, Michael Koskoff

Starring: Chadwick Boseman, Josh Gad, Kate Hudson, Dan Stevens, James Cromwell, Sterling K. Brown, Keesha Sharp, Sophia Bush, Jussie Smollett, Chilli