MARSHALL – A Review by Hollywood Hernandez
Marshall is about the true story of Thurgood Marshall. It's set in the 1940's when Marshall was an attorney for The NAACP. Understaffed at the time, the NAACP sends Marshall out on crusades all over the country giving legal defense to blacks who have been wrongly charged with a crime.
Chadwick Boseman is slick in his portrayal as the future Supreme Court Justice. He reminds me of a young Sydney Poitier with his quiet confidence and his cool style. Josh Gad (Beauty and the Beast) plays opposite of Boseman as a young Jewish attorney, Sam Friedman, who has to be the voice of Marshall in the Connecticut courtroom because Marshall is not a member of the bar in that state.
Friedman is the exact opposite of Marshall, which makes for some excellent chemistry between the two actors. While Marshall is thorough and prepared (he travels with an entire law book library in his suitcases), Friedman has never even been involved in a criminal case. As a matter of fact, Friedman is such a bad lawyer he is picked by litigants because of his ability to lose cases.
Slowly a friendship develops between the two men and they soon find that they have more in common that they first thought. Neither is an accepted member of the community; one because of his religion and one because of his race.
The trail focuses on a case where a black man, Joseph Spell (Sterling K. Brown) is falsely accused of raping a white woman, Eleanor Strubing (Kate Hudson). The movie is both gripping and inspiring. The entire cast is excellent and the movie will have you on an emotional ride from start to finish.
Marshall is rated "PG-13" and , while it has some violence and sexual situations, I would recommend the movie for any child of school age. It is a very worthwhile movie. It has a run time just under 2 hours.
The movie will move you both to tears and anger but I highly suggest you go see it. On my "Hollywood Popcorn Scale" Marshall rates a JUMBO!
