It's 1941. Thurgood Marshall (Chadwick Boseman) travels the country as NAACP's only lawyer crusading for black defendants against the racist justice system. His next case is in Greenwich, Connecticut where rich housewife Eleanor Strubing (Kate Hudson) has accused her driver Joseph Spell (Sterling K. Brown) of raping her. Insurance lawyer Sam Friedman (Josh Gad) is recruited. He's reluctant and on top of that, Judge Foster (James Cromwell) refuses to accept Marshall into the local state bar. With Marshall silenced in court and with no criminal court experience, Friedman has to battle entitled prosecutor Loren Willis (Dan Stevens).
This is a biodrama of one particular case with future Supreme Court judge Marshall. The story is compelling and the history is fascinating. The actors are all first rate. The actual court case does have some awkward turns. It's a thin line between blaming the victim and searching for the truth. It may help to definitively declare Spell as innocent from the start. This shouldn't be a courtroom mystery and should skew more towards underdog courtroom drama. If Marshall gets the truth from Spell at the beginning, he would come out looking even better. There are a lot of twisting that reminds me too much of a TV courtroom drama. I do love a lot of this movie but little things keep bugging me. For example, I love the kitchen knife joke but their kiss after temple strikes me as too much. I prefer a knowing touch and a sweet smile for her husband to drive home that scene much better. None of the little issues prevent me from really enjoying this well-acted compelling historical drama.
This is a biodrama of one particular case with future Supreme Court judge Marshall. The story is compelling and the history is fascinating. The actors are all first rate. The actual court case does have some awkward turns. It's a thin line between blaming the victim and searching for the truth. It may help to definitively declare Spell as innocent from the start. This shouldn't be a courtroom mystery and should skew more towards underdog courtroom drama. If Marshall gets the truth from Spell at the beginning, he would come out looking even better. There are a lot of twisting that reminds me too much of a TV courtroom drama. I do love a lot of this movie but little things keep bugging me. For example, I love the kitchen knife joke but their kiss after temple strikes me as too much. I prefer a knowing touch and a sweet smile for her husband to drive home that scene much better. None of the little issues prevent me from really enjoying this well-acted compelling historical drama.