Rarely will I chide a film for just being entertaining. Do you know how much effort it takes to make an entertaining film? However, when I enter a theater hosting a biopic about the first African-American to rise all the way to the Supreme Court, I have certain expectations. I expect to see man who handles constitutional law with the same deftness that Steph Curry handles a basketball. I expect to see a man who knows the value of words and societal roles as well as he knows what he had for breakfast that morning. Entertaining as Marshall may have been, I didn’t really expect the portrayal of a snake-oil salesman.
In the 1940s, the NAACP employed exactly one lawyer, Thurgood Marshall (Chadwick Boseman). The organization concentrated entirely on wrongfully accused persons of color and shipped Thurgood to every corner of the United States screaming for judicial justice. In Connecticut, chauffeur Joseph Spell (Sterling K. Brown) has been accused of rape and attempted murder. The NAACP has coerced Sam Friedman (Josh Gad), a white lawyer, to stand-in until Thurgood can get to Connecticut and unpack his cape. However, when Thurgood arrives on the scene, Judge Foster (James Cromwell), officially mutes the titular cast member, ordering upon threat of jail that Thurgood do little more than mime instructions to counselor Friedman. If you can imagine Chadwick Boseman shoving his arm up Josh Gad’s back and using him as a muppet, that is essentially what the trial amounts to.
Geez, for the love of Meadowlark Lemon, of all the cases in Thurgood’s portfolio, this is the one you’re going to highlight?! The one where he is gagged during court procession? The one where he isn’t technically lead counsel? The one where his client isn’t guilty, but isn’t exactly innocent, either? You are telling me that in the wake of Harvey Weinstein being unveiled as a predatory piece of shit and every brave woman you know posting a demoralizing “Me Too” story on FB, you’re honestly going to call a female screaming “rape” a liar?! After what should have been a smooth Obama-to-Hillary transition, pitting black rights against female rights (as if the two are exclusive) is irresponsible.
Don’t get me wrong, for pure entertainment value alone, Marshall is worth watching. Seeing an innocent man go to trial is truly a tried and true trope. And there are certainly uplifting moments in the film where Chadwick gets to rail against the system and call out hypocrisy, but mostly Thurgood Marshall comes off as smug – flicking a lit cigarette at a lynch patrol, winking at the camera while drawing from a “WHITES ONLY” drinking fountain, making Josh Gad his lackey from the moment they meet– There’s no greatness there; it makes me believe Thurgood Marshall gets his kicks running three-card monte on the weekend. The trial itself is more gimmicky than instructive. Get a load of a scene in which Friedman requests to be gagged the way Eleanor Strubing (Kate Hudson) claims she had been gagged by her chauffeur. This whole movie smacks of a lesson in how to transform an important film into an entertaining one by sacrificing anything of substance. Sure, maybe it’s too much to ask for To Kill a Mockingbird, but do we have to make this film another From the Hip? Yes. Yes, we do.
Chadwick Boseman is slowly making his way through the encyclopedia of notable mid-20th century African Americans. After Jackie Robinson, James Brown, and Thurgood Marshall, where do you suppose he goes next: Sidney Poitier? Chuck Berry? Althea Gibson?
I stared at this film blankly, constantly thinking about how wonderful and awesome a thing it is to instruct the 
world about an icon of whom most of us know next-to-nothing. And given the chance to show what it was to be the first black man appointed to the Supreme Court, this film described him as more Johnny Cochran than Atticus Finch.
Do you understand what a disservice this is, Reginald Hudlin? The United States is currently undergoing a crisis of race, the biggest such crisis since the 1960s. There is a racist president in office. He was elected by a voting minority consisting entirely of racists and those blithely indifferent to race issues. The consequences have been both obvious and tragic: at a time when the voice of sanity needs to prevail, the worst members of our society have been empowered. So forgive me if I’m just a little put off that one of the great icons of racial equality in the history of the United States comes off as little more than a game show host. If we’re going strictly by Chadwick Boseman roles, I’d rather put his James Brown on the Supreme Court than his Thurgood Marshall.
A biopic of exquisite promise
Turns a storm into the calm-us
This Marshall with fetter
Don’t expect better
With a follow-up about Clarence Thomas
Rated PG-13, 118 Minutes
Director: Reginald Hudlin
Writer: Jacob Koskoff, Michael Koskoff
Genre: Isn’t the courtroom fun?
Type of being most likely to enjoy this film: The unambitious
Type of being least likely to enjoy this film: Fans of history
