On the Basis of Sex (2018)

Film: On the Basis of Sex (2018)
Stars: Felicity Jones, Armie Hammer, Justin Theroux, Kathy Bates, Sam Waterston
Director: Mimi Leder
Oscar History: No nominations
Snap Judgment Ranking: 3/5 stars

Liberals have few living superheroes quite as beloved as Ruth Bader Ginsburg.  Though there are complicated aspects of her legacy (namely the risk she put her seat in by not resigning in 2012), it's impossible to look at the actual substance of her career and not marvel at what she has meant for women.  Watching On the Basis of Sex I was reminded of this fact, not just from the multitude of women of all different walks of life sitting with me in a darkened theater (one of those rare non-premiere films that got applause after the film ended), but also looking at my own mother next to me, sobbing uncontrollably as she witnessed the final moments of the picture unfold.  On the Basis of Sex isn't nearly as groundbreaking as its subject, but it is very much a populist hit that's harder to make than you'd think-Leder's film is interesting, swiftly-paced, and proof that biopics don't have to be awards bait to still be fun to watch.

(Do you need a spoiler alert for a movie like this?) The film follows Ginsburg (Jones) during the earliest days of her time as a Harvard law student through her first major gender-discrimination case in the early 1970's.  The film does a pretty decent job of balancing out Ginsburg's professional woes (and successes) with her family life, with a lot focused on her storybook marriage to Marty (Hammer).  The movie's central case involves Charles Moritz, a man who was denied caregiver's rights because the law presumed only a woman would want to be a caregiver for an ailing parent.  Along the way, Ginsburg butts heads with the ACLU (despite them teaming up), with Justin Theroux's Mel being a leery ally of her movement, and properly fights former Solicitor General Erwin Griswold (Waterston) in court.  The film ends with her winning this case, and a very moving transition from Jones as a young Ginsburg walking up the Supreme Court stairs to be followed briefly by a present-day Ginsburg wearing the same outfit, a bit of a shock I'll admit as I had no idea she had blessed the film in such a way.

It's good to see Leder behind-the-camera here in general, considering that sexism played no-small-part in how her career eventually capsized.  Leder, who received a bum's rush after the disastrous performance of Pay It Forward (this is her first theatrically-released film in the United States in 18 years), surely would have been given a second chance were she a man considering she also had the successful Deep Impact on her resume (Andrew Stanton, Tim Johnson, & Guy Ritchie still work, and unlike Leder, their films were proper bombs...Leder's at least turned a profit if you don't count publicity, plus it's not like she wrote the damn thing).  You can see in the way she approaches this film a lack of a distinctive touch, playing it safe with Ginsburg's story and letting it be the central focus.  This may make some critics snooze, but I found it oddly refreshing.  Too often we see something dreadful like Vice, where the director's instincts are consistently missing the point or Bohemian Rhapsody, where a jumble of approaches to the film's lead results in a messy picture.  On the Basis of Sex isn't breaking ground (this is the sort of film that just as easily could have been made with Barbara Stanwyck or Ali McGraw or Ashley Judd...it works in any era), but it is eminently watchable.  Leder's approach is to give the audience story beats that are familiar, but with strong acting from the leads that makes up for the fact that you know this story by heart.  In an era where every director requires their individual stamp on a movie, this feels retro.

The leads are really fun in these roles.  Hammer, in particular, stands out as the supportive spouse.  His Marty borders into manic-pixie-dream-guy (from stories they have told about their lives, this might have just been the truth), but you can see his struggles to be a modern man with a wife who will overshadow him, while only occasionally falling into the trappings of his privilege.  It feels authentic to show him as someone who genuinely adored his wife, something we don't really see onscreen enough-there are countless people who love and admire each other and have relatively successful marriages, but it's not something that makes for compelling drama.  Here it feels truly watchable, though, and hats off to Hammer & Jones for being able to pull this off.  It's easy to sigh knowing the film is trying to curtail sexism, but were the roles reversed, it's impossible to imagine Jones not getting Supporting Actress heat for such a supportive spouse, but since it's a man playing this role, AMPAS isn't going anywhere near the film.  Even in 2018, we still have a long way to go when it comes to sexism.