Movie Reaction: On the Basis of Sex

Formula: (Philadelphia * 9 to 5 * Legally Blond) ^ RBG

Biopics are hard. That belongs on some sort of Ten Commandments of Movies somewhere. First of all, life doesn't play out like a movie. There's no three act structure that encapsulates the decades a person lived. Normally, the interesting parts of a person's life are so spread out that filmmakers are left with the choice of diluting the timeline too much or leaving major events on the cutting room floor. The more recent the biopic, the harder it is. God help you if the subject of the movie or their family are still alive. Just look at the guarded way that Freddy Mercury was handled in Bohemian Rhapsody. That movie was hardly an incisive look at Mercury. It was a token acknowledgement of his flaws and a celebration of his strengths*. More modern examples are highly influenced by the filmmaker's opinion of a character. Just look at Vice. When a filmmaker likes a subject, the biopic becomes a hagiography. When they hate the person, the movie is only a step above a throwing shit at a picture of the person. At least when the story was a long time ago, no one can fact check you with the same level of certainty.

*I'm sorry. Legal has just informed me that I'm supposed to point out that Bohemian Rhapsody is a Queen biopic, not a Freddy Mercury biopic...Sure.

On the Basis of Sex comes from a place of love. RBG is having such a moment right now - a long overdue recognition of her work to some; a political overreaction to others - that a biopic about her life was all but guaranteed. This film covers a roughly 15 year period, from her days at Harvard law school to the gender equality case that really launched her career. All things considered, it's a pretty conservative timeline for a biopic. The film starts with Ruth (Felicity Jones) already married to Martin (Armie Hammer) and with a daughter. There is no origin story. We don't glimpse into the thing that inspired her to become a lawyer when she was five. They aren't concerned with having a meet-cute. The film checks in at law school long enough to show the sexism she faced and the family emergency that made her experience especially challenging. It jumps ahead a few years to show how difficult it was for her to get a job as a lawyer (again, sexism). The majority of the film though focuses on her about 10 years after law school, when she's brought the first case that could really challenge legal sex-based discrimination. Also, more sexism.

Felicity Jones is fine in this. Her Brooklyn accent wasn't as distracting as I once feared it would be. She has nice chemistry with Armie Hammer and injects as much life into the character as possible. I've always liked Jones and, while not the best thing she's done, this doesn't change my assessment of her at all. Justin Theroux, who plays Mel Wulf, a high ranking employee at the ACLU helping Ruth, has a nice balance of advocate and impediment. He's on Ruth's side, but his fear of failure often outweighs his desire for change. Cailee Spaeny plays Ruth's strong-willed teenage daughter, Jane, and helps to humanize Ruth. Then there's Sam Waterston and Stephen Root, who really needed mustaches to twirl, playing the head of the legal defense against Ruth's case (also, her former Dean and Professors at Harvard).

On the Basis of Sex has the exact biopic problems I expected. The movie is afraid of saying anything too damning about Ruth. She can't cook. OK. She's stubborn. I guess that's something (They might as well have said her one weakness is that she cares too much). It's the world holding her back, not her own issues. That just isn't narratively all that interesting in a character study. It also has the "punching down" problem that a lot of historical movies have. Ginsburg was on the right side of history and over the last 50 years, the things she was fighting for sound so obvious now. The movie has a hard time really capturing the mindset of the people arguing against her. It makes easy villains out of all of them, which again, just isn't that interesting. None of the performances of the "villains" are believable. When Sam Waterston rants about how they need to protect the American family, I never believe that he means it. So, as a result, the movie is about someone who is awesome and correct going up against people who are clearly her inferiors and unconvincing.

Despite all that, I did like the movie. On the Basis of Sex does everything it sets out to. It builds RBG up as someone worthy of your respect, even if you don't agree with her on everything. It reminds the audience about how recently things were very different and shows how incrementally change occurs. It's a crowd-pleasing movie. My packed theater applauded at the end. It's good and bad in nearly the same ways that Bohemian Rhapsody is, except it lacks Queen's music, which apparently, is the difference between being an awards contender and not being one.

One Last Thought: The marketing department did this movie no favors. Nearly all the advertising I've seen for this movie uses that "The word 'woman' is never mentioned in the US Constitution"/"Nor is the word freedom, your honor." exchange, which is the climax of the movie. The last time a trailer stepped on a big moment in a movie this much was when Batman v. Superman put Wonder Woman's awesome introduction in the trailer. I guess it's a good way to sell the movie, but that's a line I would've loved to be surprised by.

Verdict (?): Weakly Recommend