Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10
Cast: Felicity Jones, Armie Hammer, Justin Theroux, Sam Waterston, Kathy Bates, Cailee Spaeny, Jack Reynor, Stephen Root, Chris Mulkey, Gary Werntz, Francis X. McCarthy, Ben Carlson, Ronald Guttman, Wendy Crewson, John Ralston, Arthur Holden, Angela Galuppo, Geordie Johnson, Jeff Lillico, Callum Schoniker, Joe Cobden, Sharon Washington, Holly Gauthier-Frankel, Tom Irwin, Alexandra Petrachuk, Paul Spera, Aiza Ntibarikure, Marina Moreira, Moira Wylie.
If the biopic serves any purpose, it is to serve justice to the characters it is its honour to portray, a quest that for many falls short or has to be suitably arranged so that it spices up what is otherwise the dull and routinely languid.
In a simple story comes revelation, the biopic in the case of fascinating subject can leave you breathless, cheering them on from the comfort of the cinema seat and smile though you be damned for disturbing the peace, and in the most extreme cases of having sat through what is essentially a social history lessons, the upbeat radical thought of delving into more books and learning about the full extent of the subject’s life.
Without determined, highly reasoned and educated women such as Ruth Bader Ginsburg, without forward thinking and supportive men such as her husband Martin, the world would be a very different place today. It would be stuck, festering, decaying in the realm of unjust laws; the world is not perfect, far from it but thanks to lawyers tackling the issue of gender discrimination, it is at least one that seen us move forward as a species, arcane laws steeped in another era have no place in today’s society, On The Basis Of Sex is a meaningless, mealy mouthed catechism that deserves to be seen for what is, prejudice, inequality, bigotry.
On The Basis Of Sex will not be a film that will change the way we view cinema but it will have the greater distinction of holding a mirror up to our society, a reminder of the sheer audacity and social prejudice we have imposed upon half the population, under the guise of protection, under the umbrella of cowardice, of fear, of refusing to acknowledge that both genders can do the same job just as well as each other.
It is in that, and the performances of Felicity Jones and Armie Hammer as Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Martin Ginsburg, Justin Theroux as Mel Wulf, the consummate Sam Waterson as Erwin Griswold, the delight of Kathy Bates taking on the equally iconic Dorothy Kenyon and Cailee Spaeny, who has caught the cinematic eye before in Bad Times At The El Royale, as Jane Ginsburg, that the film truly gives the sense of living through the eyes of history; beautifully captured, absorbing, and one to cherish. On The Basis Of Sex is a statement to which all should take heed, and rejoice that there are people out there not willing to put up with the life without causing social change.
Ian D. Hall