Felicity Jones as Ruth Bader Ginsburg in On the Basis of Sex (photograph by Entertainment One)

Perhaps more starkly than at any time since her appointment to the Supreme Court in 1993, Ruth Bader Ginsburg stands out as its progressive beacon for those of a liberal persuasion. The health of this eighty-five-year-old, who rose to prominence in the 1970s and 1980s fighting for legal gender equality, is under constant scrutiny. Should she retire or die, Trump would have an extraordinary third opportunity to further stack the bench with conservatives.

It’s an ideal moment for a biopic celebrating this woman, who, in the United States at least, enjoys pop status. Sometimes she is referred to as RBG, which was the title of a 2018 documentary about her life and career. On the Basis of Sex charts her formative years, from one of Harvard Law School’s handful of female students in the 1950s, through her teaching career (since no law firm would hire a woman), before culminating in her debut as a practising lawyer in 1971. The case would change Ginsburg’s trajectory and that of the nation.

On the Basis of Sex reveals an extraordinarily intelligent, determined woman, subtly or overtly stymied at almost every turn by sexism. The exception is at home, where her husband, lawyer Martin Ginsburg, is a paragon of equality and support, and her daughter urges a more radical kind of feminism. Here are all the ingredients for a classic underdog story, wrapped up in another favourite Hollywood genre: the legal drama.

While On the Basis of Sex is reasonably inspiring, it is not particularly inspired. Often it succumbs to Hollywood biopic clichés. Inevitably, it is reverential: the screenplay is written by RBG’s nephew Daniel Stiepleman. Director Mimi Leder (thankfully they found a woman) steers a brisk yet cautious course that should satisfy Ginsburg’s supporters, and also enlighten those who know little of her past or recent institutionalised sexism.

Armie Hammer as Martin Ginsburg in On the Basis of Sex (photograph by Entertainment One)

The cast works hard to bring subtlety to a film that could have been hopelessly formulaic. British actress Felicity Jones (The Theory of Everything, Rogue One) plays Ginsburg with an appealing balance of doubt and determination, and a fairly convincing New York Jewish accent (nothing is made of the anti-Semitism Ginsburg also undoubtedly faced).

Armie Hammer (Call Me by Your Name, The Man from U.N.C.L.E.) brings his signature easy charm to the role of Martin Ginsburg, while Sam Waterston, so often the honest, avuncular character in television shows such as The Newsroom, plays against type as conservative Harvard Law Dean Erwin Griswold. Among the many gifts that history gives the film is Griswold’s reappearance as the United States Solicitor General, once again standing in Ginsburg’s way in the court case that inspires the grand finale.

On her side, though not without the era’s chauvinist tendencies, is the American Civil Liberties Union’s legal director (played with vim by Justin Theroux). Also lending imperfect support is a feisty activist lawyer (Kathy Bates, acerbic as ever), who tried and failed in the past to argue a case on the basis of gender bias – unlike Ginsburg, whose first case was a ground-breaking success, though as the film presents it, victory only came after clumsy mistakes on her part. This sets the scene for a rousing speech by our heroine. Such a jarring narrative cliché makes one wonder how often facts have been massaged in the interests of making a feel-good movie.

Felicity Jones as Ruth Bader Ginsburg in On the Basis of Sex (photograph by Entertainment One)

Overall, there are more pluses than minuses in this film, which tries to entertain, educate, and inspire a general audience. It is conventionally scripted, shot, dressed, and scored, but it is both ambitious and deft enough to accommodate legal detail. The final third centres on that 1971 Moritz v. Commissioner of Internal Revenue case, which sees both Ginsburgs representing a man discriminated against on the basis of sex – a canny first strike against the many instances of gender inequality that were then enshrined in law.

On the Basis of Sex, which concentrates on fifteen years in an extraordinary life, packs in too much narrative (for example, one minute Martin Ginsburg is hospitalised with a five per cent chance of surviving testicular cancer, the next he’s starting a new job). It will leave many wanting more, in both good and bad ways, from more history to more nuance. RBG the documentary is the answer in that case, but this dramatisation of Ruth Bader Ginsburg inventing herself, while also embodying a social and legal evolution, is a worthwhile starting point.

On the Basis of Sex (Entertainment One), 120 minutes, directed by Mimi Leder. In cinemas 7 February 2019.

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