Before he played the lead in Marvel Studios' superhero sage "Black Panther," actor Chadwick Boseman played a genuine African-American hero in "Boomerang" director Reginald Hudlin's "Marshall," a sterling biographical courtroom yarn about civil rights attorney Thurgood Marshall. As it turns out, this is the same individual who argued 32 cases before the Supreme Court and then later donned the robes as the first African-American to sit on the highest federal court of the United States. It doesn't hurt matters that seasoned civil rights advocate Michael Koskoff and his son Jacob penned the screenplay. Interestingly, the elder Koskoff still serves as an attorney in Connecticut, where the trial took place in 1941, so he would know something about the hurdles that Marshall had to negotiate. At this point in his life, Marshall worked as the sole legal counsel for the NAACP, and his NAACP superior Walter White (Roger Guenveur Smith of "Eve's Bayou") dispatches him to all parts of the country to defend poor African-Americans who cannot afford an attorney. "Marshall" depicts the title character as a sharp, savvy, sartorially elegant attorney who refused to be intimidated by anybody. Boseman has a field day incarnating this historical personage. Neither Hudlin nor the Koskoffs reveal a great deal about Thurgood Marshall beyond his dedication to the rights of African-Americans in a legal system skewered against them. Indeed, we do learn about the problems that Marshall and his wife Vivien "Buster" Burey (Keesha Sharp of "Malibu's Most Wanted") encountered in their repeated but futile efforts to get pregnant. Eventually, she does have a baby. Nevertheless, Hudlin and the Koskoffs don't let Marshall's own life history interfere with the trial at hand. Mind you, "Marshall" clocks in two minutes short of two hours, but Hudlin doesn't malinger. The trial in question takes place in Bridgeport, Connecticut. The authorities have arrested a middle-aged, African-American chauffeur, Joseph Spell (Sterling K. Brown of "Brown Sugar"), for allegedly raping a Greenwich socialite, Mrs. Eleanor Strubing (Kate Hudson of "Deepwater Horizon"), and then throwing her into a reservoir late one evening. According to Koskoff, when the press broke the story, one newspaper touted it as "the sex trial of the century." When Marshall visits Spell in his jail cell, the attorney explains that the NAACP represents only innocent blacks. Spell assures Marshall that he did not rape Strubing. Furthermore, he has an alibi for his whereabouts when the crime occurred, and the witness in question turns out to be a white policeman who is prepared to testify. As the case unfolds, Marshall realizes that he lacks the appropriate credentials to practice law in Connecticut, so he finds a gullible but willing Jewish insurance attorney, Sam Friedman (Josh Gad of "Pixels"), to help him represent Spell. Friedman constantly has second thoughts about the trial and the dire publicity that may irreparably damage his budding civil practice. Nevertheless, he agrees to serve as Spell's mouthpiece. Meantime, the abrasive Judge Foster (James Cromwell of "L.A. Confidential") refuses to let Marshall utter a syllable during the trial and threatens to hold him in contempt if he does. Throughout the trial, Marshall must coach Friedman because the latter hasn't argued a criminal case. If these two strikes against our sympathetic, but snappy hero aren't enough, Marshall discovers about half-way through the case that Spell has been lying to them. Indeed, Spell didn't rape Strubing! Instead, he had intimate consensual relations with her, because her abusive, bad-tempered husband, John Strubing (Jeremy Bobb of "Boy Wonder"), often left her alone at night. Naturally, Friedman struggles to improvise, but he falls into too many traps laid by prosecuting attorney Loren Willis (Dan Stevens of "The Guest"), who is supremely confident that he will win a conviction. Of course, the good citizens of Bridgeport aren't happy with both Marshall and Friedman, and they go after them with fists. Friedman suffers the worst, getting beaten to his knees, and walking away with minor scars on his face. Marshall grins at him and points out that the local press lumped him with Marshall as a crusading NAACP lawyer."Marshall" qualifies as a well-made but routine courtroom drama bolstered by terrific performances and historical accuracy.

It's 1941. Thurgood Marshall (Chadwick Boseman) travels the country as NAACP's only lawyer crusading for black defendants against the racist justice system. His next case is in Greenwich, Connecticut where rich housewife Eleanor Strubing (Kate Hudson) has accused her driver Joseph Spell (Sterling K. Brown) of raping her. Insurance lawyer Sam Friedman (Josh Gad) is recruited. He's reluctant and on top of that, Judge Foster (James Cromwell) refuses to accept Marshall into the local state bar. With Marshall silenced in court and with no criminal court experience, Friedman has to battle entitled prosecutor Loren Willis (Dan Stevens).This is a biodrama of one particular case with future Supreme Court judge Marshall. The story is compelling and the history is fascinating. The actors are all first rate. The actual court case does have some awkward turns. It's a thin line between blaming the victim and searching for the truth. It may help to definitively declare Spell as innocent from the start. This shouldn't be a courtroom mystery and should skew more towards underdog courtroom drama. If Marshall gets the truth from Spell at the beginning, he would come out looking even better. There are a lot of twisting that reminds me too much of a TV courtroom drama. I do love a lot of this movie but little things keep bugging me. For example, I love the kitchen knife joke but their kiss after temple strikes me as too much. I prefer a knowing touch and a sweet smile for her husband to drive home that scene much better. None of the little issues prevent me from really enjoying this well-acted compelling historical drama.

I watched all of the leading movies made in 2017 and this was by far the best. Marshall did a lot of great work in his life, besides this one early trial. Sequel, please!

I can give this movie nothing more than a 5 out of 10. Marshall is a fairly average movie all around. I was expecting a serious toned well made movie telling me something about a future Supreme Court Justice. Instead, I got a lackluster average courtroom drama. The acting is average and the characters are almost cartoon-ish. Had this movie been made in the early 1990's I may have been able to give it a 6, because that is what it feels like. A tired early 1990's courtroom drama. To see people rating this movie a 8, or 9 destroys my faith in humanity as a whole, this was not a great, spectacular movie that will make you think, it's a lazy boring sunday, "because there is nothing on," movie. It isn't awful just dated. With this being Thurgood Marshall, I was expecting something much more. I was expecting to see something better along the lines of great movies like "A Time to Kill," or something like that. This fell flat by a margin I seriously could not imagine. The dialog is pretty much a caricature that probably was written over the course of a weekend. It's a waste of a good story that could have been great had the film makers taken their time to make it so. As it is, this was likely just greenlighted because of the Marshall name, figuring they could squeeze a few bucks out to make some other flat movie in the future. Again, a 5 out of 10. Not a horrible movie, just average in so many ways that it fails to even live up to the ratings people have so far given it. I don't know if they are just biased in favor of the great man portrayed, but the movie itself is not the 7.1 out of 10 people are giving it at the time of this review.