On the evening news they announced, that for the first time in her 25 years as a Supreme Court Justice, Ruth Bader Ginsburg would miss hearing oral arguments but would read all the notes taken and vote as was expected of her. After two operations for cancer and bouts of chemo she still shows the fortitude that saw her through a life of having to prove herself.
"On The Basis of Sex" opens with Ginsberg attending a class of Harvard Law School, only one of nine women in a class of more than 500 men. We see the happy and equal, possibly more equal for her, marriage with her loving, smart husband who knows his wife can do anything she wants and he is there to back her up. For the first hour of the film we see had badly women were treated in the work force, along in many other aspects of everyday life, the comfortable marriage of the Ginsbergs, their children of which the oldest is a daughter who seems to motivate her mother to go a step further than she might be ready to go and how it lead to the Supreme Court.
It is in the last 45 minutes that we see Ginsburg in 1975 arguing her first case regarding gender equality but it is for a man, not a woman, who as a caretaker for his mother has been denied $296 as a tax deduction.
"On The Basis of Sex" is written by Ruth Bader Ginsberg's nephew, Daniel Stiepleman, but as much research as I did I wasn't able to find out who his parents were but he obviously admired, if not worshiped, Martin and Ruth Ginsburg so both are presented as perfect people.
Felicity Jones as Ruth Bader Ginsburg really has a one note role but adds what she can to it. Anyone who saw last years documentary "RBG" or has seen her interviewed knows the lady is certainly not a one note person. Armie Hammer, as Martin, is excellent as the man who believes in his wife while Cailee Spaeny does a standout job as their teenage daughter Jane.
Though it is hard, at first, to accept Sam Waterston as the hard, condescending Dean of Harvard Erwin Griswold, he is just one of the men who thought as he did, including the 3 judges who hear Ginsburg's gender discrimination case.
Along with Hammer, Justin Theroux, as a ACLU lawyer, and Christian Mulkey, as the defendant in the case, are effective in playing the 'good guys'.
Kathy Bates in the role of Dorothy Kenyon, an early civil liberties fighter, lawyer and judge, shines in her two scenes.
The director, Mimi Leder, does a by the numbers job and somewhere along the line the production staff saw a 'blue' New York. Clothes, signs, lights, door fronts, let alone Ginsburg's major outfit, is blue!
"On The Basis of Sex" is an enjoyable love story, an interesting gender civil rights lesson, but most of all it shows how a person, a woman, lead a successful life in spite of all that was thrown in her way and gave us a woman who today is admired by many, including her enemies who want to get her off the Court which is a compliment.
I recommend a double bill movie night of "On The Basis of Sex" for a Hollywood version of Ruth Baded Ginsburg and "RBG" to discover who the woman was yesterday and is today.
Movie trailer
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=28dHbIR_NB4
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On the evening news they announced, that for the first time in her 25 years as a Supreme Court Justice, Ruth Bader Ginsburg would miss hearing oral arguments but would read all the notes taken and vote as was expected of her. After two operations for cancer and bouts of chemo she still shows the fortitude that saw her through a life of having to prove herself.
"On The Basis of Sex" opens with Ginsberg attending a class of Harvard Law School, only one of nine women in a class of more than 500 men. We see the happy and equal, possibly more equal for her, marriage with her loving, smart husband who knows his wife can do anything she wants and he is there to back her up. For the first hour of the film we see had badly women were treated in the work force, along in many other aspects of everyday life, the comfortable marriage of the Ginsbergs, their children of which the oldest is a daughter who seems to motivate her mother to go a step further than she might be ready to go and how it lead to the Supreme Court.
It is in the last 45 minutes that we see Ginsburg in 1975 arguing her first case regarding gender equality but it is for a man, not a woman, who as a caretaker for his mother has been denied $296 as a tax deduction.
"On The Basis of Sex" is written by Ruth Bader Ginsberg's nephew, Daniel Stiepleman, but as much research as I did I wasn't able to find out who his parents were but he obviously admired, if not worshiped, Martin and Ruth Ginsburg so both are presented as perfect people.
Felicity Jones as Ruth Bader Ginsburg really has a one note role but adds what she can to it. Anyone who saw last years documentary "RBG" or has seen her interviewed knows the lady is certainly not a one note person. Armie Hammer, as Martin, is excellent as the man who believes in his wife while Cailee Spaeny does a standout job as their teenage daughter Jane.
Though it is hard, at first, to accept Sam Waterston as the hard, condescending Dean of Harvard Erwin Griswold, he is just one of the men who thought as he did, including the 3 judges who hear Ginsburg's gender discrimination case.
Along with Hammer, Justin Theroux, as a ACLU lawyer, and Christian Mulkey, as the defendant in the case, are effective in playing the 'good guys'.
Kathy Bates in the role of Dorothy Kenyon, an early civil liberties fighter, lawyer and judge, shines in her two scenes.
The director, Mimi Leder, does a by the numbers job and somewhere along the line the production staff saw a 'blue' New York. Clothes, signs, lights, door fronts, let alone Ginsburg's major outfit, is blue!
"On The Basis of Sex" is an enjoyable love story, an interesting gender civil rights lesson, but most of all it shows how a person, a woman, lead a successful life in spite of all that was thrown in her way and gave us a woman who today is admired by many, including her enemies who want to get her off the Court which is a compliment.
I recommend a double bill movie night of "On The Basis of Sex" for a Hollywood version of Ruth Baded Ginsburg and "RBG" to discover who the woman was yesterday and is today.
Movie trailer
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=28dHbIR_NB4
