☆☆☆½
Earlier this year, Supreme Court justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg was the subject of RBG, an insightful (though, to my taste, not quite insightful enough) documentary, and now comes the fictionalized docu-drama version of her life. On the Basis of Sex is a beautifully made film, with detailed, period visual flair throughout, and it's very well-acted, even if Felicity Jones can't quite nail Ginsburg's accent or her curiously restrained personality. Ginsburg life is her work, and vice-versa. As she demonstrates in her own documentary, she's not given to histrionics, a character quirk that denies director Mimi Leder and screenwriter Daniel Stiepleman (Ginsburg's nephew) the big, bravura moment movies like this demand.
That leaves film's impressive supporting cast -- Armie Hammer, Sam Waterston, Justin Theroux and an extended cameo by Kathy Bates -- to do a lot of the heavy lifting, and also relies on the audience to follow a technically complex tax-code lawsuit that Ginsburg fought with her husband Marty (Hammer), and which became the basis of her entire career.
The movie sparks some real and fascinating questions about Ginsburg's coming of age at a time of enormous social and cultural change, but it never addresses them head-on. Unexpectedly, fhe movie's most engaging and exciting character turns out to be Ginsburg's young daughter Jane (Cailee Spaeny), who provides the movie with needed fire and passion. On the Basis of Sex is an audience pleaser, but more by virtue of its subject and its very existence than its dramatic and narrative heft.
Viewed January 13, 2019 -- AMC Sunset 5
1420
That leaves film's impressive supporting cast -- Armie Hammer, Sam Waterston, Justin Theroux and an extended cameo by Kathy Bates -- to do a lot of the heavy lifting, and also relies on the audience to follow a technically complex tax-code lawsuit that Ginsburg fought with her husband Marty (Hammer), and which became the basis of her entire career.
The movie sparks some real and fascinating questions about Ginsburg's coming of age at a time of enormous social and cultural change, but it never addresses them head-on. Unexpectedly, fhe movie's most engaging and exciting character turns out to be Ginsburg's young daughter Jane (Cailee Spaeny), who provides the movie with needed fire and passion. On the Basis of Sex is an audience pleaser, but more by virtue of its subject and its very existence than its dramatic and narrative heft.
Viewed January 13, 2019 -- AMC Sunset 5
1420
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