A minifig of Supreme Court judge Ruth Bader Ginsburg appears in The Lego Movie 2. A documentary about her might just win an Oscar on Sunday night. Aged 85, Ginsburg has never been more famous. She’s famously wily and now synonymous with the fight for gender equality. And this biopic, though it never quite bottles her essence, is pretty crafty too.
We first meet Ruth (Felicity Jones) as she enters Harvard Law School. Determined to do well, she’s also very much in love with her husband, Martin (Armie Hammer).
Endlessly supportive Marty is crucial to the story. It’s he who suggests in 1970 that Ruth go to court on behalf of Charles Moritz (Chris Mulkey). The latter, trying to juggle work with looking after his elderly mother, has been denied tax breaks. With the help of her caring husband, Ruth fights for the rights of a caring man.
Throughout the film Ruth gets undermined by male peers. Understandably, this makes her a little tense. Marty? He’s funny and relaxed. No wonder Mel Wulf (Justin Theroux), the ruthlessly pragmatic leader of the ACLU (American Civil Liberties Union), wants Marty to represent Moritz. No wonder the couple’s own teenage daughter, Jane (Cailee Spaeny), finds it easier to talk to her father than her mother.
Marty really does outshine Ruth; he’s indisputably sexier. Which is precisely what makes the character so subversive. The film insists that we fall in love with that most undervalued of creatures: the great man behind the great woman.
It’s perfect that he’s played by an actor as charismatic and high profile as Hammer (most A-list heart-throbs would shun this kind of role). It actually works, too, that Jones is earnest to a fault. She looks uneasy, right up until the final scene when she makes our jaws drop.
Ginsburg has always understood the power of an elegant sentence. She once said she wanted to live in an age when “women could aspire and achieve and daughters are cherished as much as sons”.
Taking its cue from Ruth, On the Basis of Sex includes everyone in the equation. Mothers — and fathers! — should take their brainy kids to see it. Youngsters will notice the flaws (the stodgy direction, the naff part for Kathy Bates) but they will thank you for drawing their attention to a feminist who makes a thrilling case for teamwork.
