Paint-by-the-numbers Great Man bio-pic covers an early case in the career of future Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall. It’s old-fashioned in a bad way, and so formulaic you feel like you’ve spent the last two hours reading story development notes. Split blame between director Reginald Hudlin (normally a pleasingly loose comedy megger, this period piece is more ‘30s Re-enactment than living drama) and neophyte father & son scripters Michael & Jacob Koskoff who’ve seen too many Perry Mason episodes. The case, uncomfortably similar with TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD, sends Marshall (Chadwick Boseman) off to Connecticut where a black handyman/chauffeur has been accused of raping his white employer’s lonely wife (Kate Hudson). Needing a local lawyer to front him in a state case, Marshall 'persuades' struggling, slightly sleazy Jewish attorney Sam Friedman (Josh Gad) to reluctantly join. After that, conventional plot twists & turns allowing our Mutt & Jeff Odd Couple lawyers to bond into LEGAL LETHAL WEAPON teammates, overwhelming what ought to be the main event. Things perk up in the Third Act (it is a courtroom drama: last minute witness, flipped testimony, summation, verdict), just not enough.
WATCH THIS, NOT THAT: Marshall’s most famous case, arguing desegregation in Brown vs. Board of Education was played by Sidney Poitier in an overly thoughtful tv pic (SEPARATE BUT EQUAL/’91) and later by Laurence Fishburne when his one-man stage show (THURGOOD) was filmed, both written by George Stevens Jr.
SCREWY THOUGHT OF THE DAY: Having played Jackie Robinson, James Brown, Marshall & Black Panther, Boseman plainly needs to get out of the icon biz before it traps him. Already, three of those four pics are stolen by co-stars, here Josh Gad.
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