Feel-good ‘Marshall’ comes along at a vital time in our nation’s history

There’s nothing funny about an African-American man on trial for his life, accused of the rape and attempted murder of a wealthy white socialite.

Not now. Especially not in 1941.

But when his defense team is the mismatched duo of soon-to-be legal legend Thurgood Marshall (Chadwick Boseman) and Samuel Friedman (Josh Gad), a Jewish civil attorney who specializes in getting insurance companies out of paying low-level settlements and has never tried a criminal case, there’s room for plenty of buddy-comedy moments.

Those scenes, along with a light touch from director Reginald Hudlin (“House Party”), working from a script by trial attorney Michael Koskoff and his son Jacob Koskoff (2015’s “Macbeth”), lend “Marshall” a jaunty, crowd-pleasing vibe much like last year’s best picture nominee “Hidden Figures.”

In December 1940, Eleanor Strubing (Kate Hudson) accused Joseph Spell (Sterling K. Brown), her black chauffeur, of repeatedly raping her, kidnapping her and throwing her into a nearby reservoir. The sensational story made national news, with papers in the Northeast referring to it as a “beastly” attack and using other language that was coded at best. One even ran an illustration of a gorilla holding a terrified white woman on its front page.

Panicked residents began firing their help, which was one of the best sources of employment for African-Americans at the time. Marshall, just 32 and recently appointed as the legal director of the NAACP, was dispatched to serve as Spell’s defense.

Since Marshall wasn’t a member of the Connecticut Bar, Friedman reluctantly agrees to the formality of vouching for him. Judge Colin Foster (James Cromwell), however, a former law partner of prosecutor Lorin Willis’ (Dan Stevens) father, has other ideas. Foster denies the routine request and demands that a flabbergasted Friedman, who only wants to stay under the radar in WASP-y Connecticut, lead the defense.

Wanting to maintain at least the appearance of fairness, though, Foster allows Marshall to sit at the defense table. Despite his having already argued before the U.S. Supreme Court, Marshall is forbidden to address Foster’s court. So it’s up to Marshall to not only investigate the case and develop a defense strategy, but to guide Friedman through its delivery.

After his portrayals of Jackie Robinson in “42” and James Brown in “Get on Up,” it’s tempting to think Boseman could play Marshall in his sleep. But he’s so suave, and instills such swagger into the civil rights icon, he’d might as well be a superhero — something else Boseman knows a thing or two about as Marvel’s Black Panther. As Thurgood, he’s Thur-great.

Sterling K. Brown, who’s on one of TV’s all-time great runs, having won Emmys in consecutive years as Christopher Darden in “The People vs. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story” and as the heart and soul of NBC’s breakout hit “This Is Us,” keeps finding new ways to make me feel.

And despite delivering a couple of laugh-out-loud moments, Gad is allowed to showcase his dramatic side in scenes alongside Stevens, his “Beauty and the Beast” co-star.

“Marshall” isn’t heavy-handed. It doesn’t preach. Unlike some other recent biopics, it doesn’t force its subject to humble himself or rely on the generosity of a white man to get ahead. Marshall is the smartest man in any room he enters, including the scene in which he has drinks with his friend Langston Hughes (“Empire’s” Jussie Smollett).

It’s an exhilarating, feel-good performance.

In the aftermath of Charlottesville, with African-Americans in their fourth week of protests in St. Louis after the acquittal of a white former police officer for killing a black suspect, and with racism and anti-Semitism proclaimed as openly as they’ve been in the past 50 years, “Marshall” comes along at a vital time in our nation’s history.

It’s the filmmaking equivalent of a collective exhale.

At least for many of us who believe that all men and women truly are created equal.

Contact Christopher Lawrence at clawrence@reviewjournal.com or 702-380-4567. Follow @life_onthecouch on Twitter.