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On the Basis of Sex
***
Dir: Mimi Leder
Starring: Felicity Jones, Armie Hammer, Justin Theroux
(USA, 12A, 120 mins)
Ruth Bader Ginsburg has long been a crusader for women’s rights and became only the second woman appointed to the US Supreme Court, fighting against overwhelming masculine bias. She’s now regarded as somewhat of a rock star icon now amongst activists, and has already been the subject of the fantastic documentary RBG.
On the Basis of Sex tells this superhero’s origin story. Played by Rogue One’s Felicity Jones, Ginsburg has a very egalitarian home life with her husband Marty (Armie Hammer). The script, co-written by Ginsburg’s nephew Daniel Stiepleman focuses on her struggles to betaken seriously in Harvard Law School, where she enrolled in 1956 with only nine other women.
Sam Waterston’s dean takes pleasure in humiliating the women and her professors are no less sexist. Ginsburg marries Marty who is diagnosed with testicular cancer forcing her to go out and work even harder. She leaves Harvard, finishes her law degree at Columbia and faces an uphill battle to be taken seriously in the legal workplace. The film finishes on a case where she and her husband fought together to challenge a decision about a male caregiver who had quit his job to look after his ailing mother.
As a caregiver was then assumed to be female he did not receive any of the benefits and tax exemptions enjoyed by his female counterparts. Ruth finds her feet in court impressing her begrudging mentors, like Justin Theroux’s Mel Wulf, ultimately chipping away at the injustices faced by the lack of equality between the genders.
The film is solid and procedural, with moments of punch-the-air satisfaction. The sheer unbelievability of how things were run a mere 50 years ago is the most alarming aspect of the film; director Leder highlights the unfairness of life for women across the world.
Ginsburg has since spent her life addressing issues of gender equality which still remain a problem, as the current global political climate shows, despite the work of pioneers like Ginsburg. On the Basis of Sex is a necessary watch.
words Keiron Self
Out now in cinemas