Marshall (2017) * * 1/2

Directed by:  Reginald Hudlin

Starring:  Chadwick Boseman, Josh Gad, Dan Stevens, Sterling K. Brown, Kate Hudson, James Cromwell

Marshall is a strange bird of a courtroom drama.   The movie is titled "Marshall" and that is indeed Chadwick Boseman on the poster as the title character, Thurgood Marshall, all by himself.    However, for plot reasons which may or may not be based on real events, the future Supreme Court justice is relegated to the sidelines during the trial proceedings.     I will explain this later.    The movie could have been written as fiction with Boseman playing a black attorney battling racism and prejudice in 1940's Connecticut.    If you're going to make a movie about Thurgood Marshall, and there is plenty of material out there to showcase his life and work, then put Marshall front and center.  

With that being said, the movie which was made nearly works anyway.    The trial of a black chauffeur (Brown, of "The People vs. O.J. Simpson") accused of the rape and attempted murder of a white socialite (Hudson) is surely a powder keg of racism, prejudice, and anger and relies on the tried and true conventions of courtroom dramas.    The movie is satisfying and held my interest, but falls short of being a great, or even an above average courtroom drama.   

Boseman, who is playing his third African-American pioneer (he also played James Brown and Jackie Robinson), and plays the young, talented, cocky Marshall very well.    But is this the Thurgood Marshall we really want to see?    Marshall feels more like a prequel.    As the movie opens, Marshall travels around the country for the NAACP representing innocent clients who were railroaded because of their race.    A new case takes him to Bridgeport, Connecticut, which despite being in the North still teems with racial prejudice.     "You're Southerners with a Northern accent," Marshall tells a group of vocal detractors.    The case of the chauffeur, a middle-aged black man named Joseph Spell (Brown), is a tough one, but Spell maintains his innocence.    However, because Marshall is not licensed in Connecticut, the hard-nosed judge (Cromwell) allows him to represent Spell on the condition he doesn't speak in court.    The arguing falls to inexperienced Jewish attorney Sam Friedman (Gad), who has never tried a criminal case, but for reasons to laborious to mention is forced to be Marshall's mouthpiece. 

Thurgood's and Sam's relationship follows the conventions of a buddy film.    Hostility, guarded truce, then unity based on each other's personal experiences with prejudice and fear.    Sam is a pariah for defending a black client (regardless of his innocence), while Thurgood is a pariah because he is a black man in a white person's world.     This common thread unites them, as well as their belief in Spell's innocence despite plot twists which change the nature of the case.    These are the more powerful moments in the film.   

Despite the strong performances, Marshall stumbles during the trial scenes because out-of-his-depth Sam needs to continually interrupt his bumbling questioning of witnesses so Thurgood can dispense advice.    Maybe this is based on real life, maybe not, but it causes the scenes to sputter.    There are elements of Marshall which suggest the movie which could have been made, but wasn't.    I was left with the feeling the great Thurgood Marshall biopic is still yet to be produced.