Marshall Review
PG13: mature thematic content, sexuality, violence and some strong language.
Open Road Films, Starlight Media, Chestnut Ridge Productions, Hudlin Entertainment
1 Hr and 58 Minutes
Dir: Reginald Hudlin | Writers: Michael Koskoff, Jacob Koskoff
Cast: Chadwick Boseman, Josh Gad, Kate Hudson, Dan Stevens, Sterling K. Brown, James Cromwell, Jussie Smollett, Sophia Bush, Chilli
INTRO: Is this going to be a thing now? Is Chadwick Boseman going to play every African American historical figure in cinema? Because if so far this is becoming a thing and it's frightening me. He’s been Jackie Robinson, James Brown, Black Panther (he is a historical figure shut your mouth), and now Thurgood Marshall. This is why African American actors aren’t prospering much in Hollywood. IT'S BECAUSE CHADWICK BOSEMAN IS TAKING ALL OF THEIR ROLES! Who is going to portray next? W.E.B Debois? George Washington Carver? Who knows?
Long before he sat on the United States Supreme Court or claimed victory in Brown v. Board of Education, Thurgood Marshall (Chadwick Boseman) was a young rabble-rousing attorney for the NAACP. The new motion picture, "Marshall," is the true story of his greatest challenge in those early days – a fight he fought alongside attorney Sam Friedman (Josh Gad), a young lawyer with no experience in criminal law: the case of black chauffeur Joseph Spell (Sterling K. Brown), accused by his white employer, Eleanor Strubing (Kate Hudson), of sexual assault and attempted murder.
THE GOOD
NOT MUCH OF A BIOPIC NOW IS IT?
When you’re the first African-American’s supreme court judicial lawyer for the U.S, Caucasians will do anything in their power to hold you back from your occupation. But that is not the case (pun intended) for this story. HERE IS A DISCLAIMER
This movie is not a Thurgood Marshall biopic. This movie is a historical crime drama film that is centered on a case that Marshall works on.
What makes a lot of the film work is the dynamic between Friedman and Marshall. Friedman who doesn’t do criminal cases and Marshall who is denied the Freedom of Speech during one of his first cases of their careers and have to work together to win it. That is the movie you have here. Instead of this being called Marshall this should’ve been named “Marshall and Friedman.”
The partnership they have is similar to (hear me out on this) the 2004 Will Smith film, ‘Hitch’ where Marshall is the ventriloquist and Friedman is the dummy as he teaches him everything he’s supposed to say for his criminal case in order to win. The best thing about 'Marshall' is the chemistry between Gad and Boseman whose performances prosper off of each other.
OLAF STEALS THE SHOW
This film is named ‘Marshall’ but whose performance shines more than the titular character is Josh Gad as Sam Friedman who is the more relatable character the audience can attach themselves with. Gad gives a powerful performance as Friedman. Because of this insurance lawyer getting rather dragged into this case opposed to volunteering for it, Friedman’s life is turned into somewhat of a living hell. He is targeted by the media, his neighbors, and the local racists. The people in his synagogue gives him shit for being the defendant of an African-American convicted felon where some members even bribe him. Everything about this case is weighted on him where at some circumstances the stakes are raised higher on him than on Marshall himself. This is one of the first (and probably only) times where Josh Gad screaming can cause an audience to cheer in context to what happens onscreen. If that doesn’t give him an Oscar nomination, I don’t know what does.
THE BAD
BROWN > ROBINSON > MARSHALL
The way how Boseman portrays Marshall is kind of….odd. He is very mellow with his delivery when interacting with others, but when he's in the limelight, his performance is generically hammy. There are several moments whenever he delivers his monologue to the reporters that interview him out of the courthouse, Boseman’s Marshall begins to embody the mannerism’s of David Oyelowo’s Martin Luther Jr. Every moment a reporter comes up to Marshall, he’s two steps away from giving an “I Have a Dream” speech. Though this is the weakest of his historical figure performances, Boseman manages to deliver an entraining performance. It is his actions that leave a better impact than his dialogue. The best moments that he shines is when she shares the screen with Gad which is 75% of this film.
What I like about Boseman’s performance though, is of how much he messes with others. For the majority of the film, Friedman is pretty much Marshall’s whipping boy where he is the butt of the every joke Marshall makes. Even then, he is fearless to challenge others who try to oppress his words due to the color of his skin. There's a powerful moment where Marshall takes a drink out of a “Whites Only” water fountain because at that point in the film where he does it, he feels that he’s earned it.
SIMPLISTIC JAZZ SCORE
When it comes to some of the scenes in court, the execution of capturing a real court case is there, but what takes one out of the moment is the score. The score for this is terrible. It takes you out of the movie so many times. I respect what the composer Marcus Miller was doing by having a lot of the music relying on jazz (especially since Miller is a jazz musician himself). The primary issue with the score is that when it is not jazz being played, the music is generically sentimental or sounds like themes of a game show especially during the scene where they have to select a jury. Because of this, scenes begin to play similar to a telenovela especially a moment when Kate Hudson walks into the courtroom, as a trumpet that bellows in the background overblown for no reason.
LAST STATEMENT
It may not be what it seems by its cover, but within its pages, Marshall is an essential historical crime drama that prospers from the chemistry between the two leads and social themes that can reflect today
Rating: 3.5/5 | 74%
uper Scene: Cloth demonstration
