34 January 10 • 2019
jn

A

news flash for members of the
tribe who’
ve been kvelling over
a Jewish woman on the U.S.
Supreme Court for fully a quarter of a
century: Ruth Bader Ginsburg long ago
matriculated beyond a symbol of ethnic
achievement.
This year’
s hit documentary RBG
noted that Justice Ginsburg is an enor-
mously popular role model for women in
their teens and 20s, and she has achieved
pop culture celebrity to boot.
Now comes the release of On the
Basis of Sex (now at The Maple; opening
elsewhere tomorrow), which applies the
Hollywood treatment to her beginnings
as a smart but struggling lawyer and
situates Justice Ginsburg smack in the
mainstream.
To coin a Lincolnesque testimonial,
now she belongs to the masses.
Director Mimi Leder and screenwriter
Daniel Stiepleman (who happens to be
Ruth and Marty Ginsburg’
s nephew)
frame On the Basis of Sex as an under-
dog saga. And like a lot of underdogs in
Hollywood movies, our heroine has a
superpower that she only discovers —
and masters — on her journey.
The movie is effective and ultimately
inspiring, in a way that doesn’
t remotely
challenge viewers other than to ask them
to follow clever legal strategies.
The film opens with Ruth’
s first days at
Harvard Law School, where her husband

Marty is in his second year. Immediately
and repeatedly, Ruth (and the viewer) is
reminded of her second-class status as a
woman in a man’
s world.
It takes a while to reconcile the con-
fident Justice Ginsburg of public record
with the somewhat skittish character

that British actress Felicity Jones creates.
On the one hand, as a wife and a mother
who — like every other aspiring profes-
sional of the time — never wears pants,
Ruth is plainly a grownup.
But she’
s patronized by everyone from
the law school’
s WASPy dean (a villain-
ous Sam Waterston) to her husband (a
stalwart Armie Hammer), and she risks

being seen as a rabble-rouser (it’
s the late
1950s) simply by standing up for herself.
Although the film does not conceal
or finesse Ruth and Marty’
s Jewishness,
it presents casual misogyny and the
entrenched old boys’
network, not
anti-Semitism, as the obstacles Ruth
needs to navigate.
Consequently, she has
to devise ways — both
direct and elliptical — to
raise the consciousness of
every ally, including her
devoted husband, before
she can even challenge
potential adversaries.
While Marty certainly
recognizes his wife’
s bril-
liance, he’
s a product of his
upbringing and the times.

EXPLORING A
RELATIONSHIP
On the Basis of Sex, or
as it’
s referred to at your
favorite corned beef dis-
pensary, RBG: The Early Years, devotes
considerable screen time to the couple’
s
relationship and, for many viewers, that
will serve as the emotional heart of the
film. Others will derive more pleasure
from Ruth finding her footing and her
voice as a scholarly attorney.
As Stipelman noted in an interview
in San Francisco recently, “Coming out

of law school, [Ruth] had three strikes
against her: She was a woman; she was
a mother; and she was a Jew. Any one of
those things alone, law firms had taken
the risk. It was the three together that
made her unhire-able in their eyes.
”
Unable to find a job practicing law,
Ruth takes a teaching position. Through
a combination of determination, per-
sistence and luck, she comes across a
unique case that addresses the inequities
of gender discrimination: The com-
plainant, who looked after his mother
but was denied the tax deduction for
caregivers, is a man.
Earlier in the film, there’
s a crucial
chain of events when Marty is diagnosed
with cancer. Ruth not only took care of
him (and their small daughter), but got
them both through law school. That
experience as a caregiver gives her both
the empathy and the understanding to
identify with and persuade her would-be
client, and to research and argue the case.
The lengthy courtroom scene that
comprises the film’
s last 20 minutes or so
is genuinely effective and even emotion-
al, despite the formulaic staging and the
fact that we know Ruth will prevail. At
the pivotal moment, we witness a char-
acter coming into her own, grasping her
abilities and realizing her destiny.
And with that, the underdog becomes
a superhero. ■

fi
lm
arts&life

On the Basis of Sex

RBG biopic melds underdog and superhero themes.

aracter
anti Semitism,

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Armie Hammer as Marty
Ginsburg, Justin Theroux
as Melvin Wulf and
Felicity Jones
as Ruth Bader
Ginsburg star in
On the Basis
of Sex.

Felicity Jones stars as

Ruth Bader Ginsburg

in On the Basis of Sex.

MICHAEL FOX SPECIAL TO THE JEWISH NEWS