On The Basis of Sex 2018

     This film chronicles Ruth Bader Ginsburg from the time she started law school at Harvard.  She is in the first class of a small group of women admitted to study law.  Out of a class of 500 men there were nine women.  Ruth’s husband, Martin D. Ginsburg was diagnosed with cancer.  After this happened, Ruth attended her classes and also Martin’s classes.  She typed her Martin’s dictated papers and cared for their young daughter, Jane.  The focus of this film is the true story of Ruth Bader Ginsburg and her struggles for equal rights.  She went to the Supreme Court with a case of gender discrimination.  A man was denied a tax credit for acting as a nurse for his elderly mother.  The tax law stated it was proper for a woman to take this tax credit but an unmarried man could not for doing the same work.

      I think this film has more information about Ruth in the beginning of her path to become a lawyer.  It also gives more details about her marriage and her family.  Ruth was born on March 15, 1993 in Brooklyn, New York.  She was the second daughter of Celia and Nathan Bader.  There was an older daughter Marylin but she died of meningitis at the age of six when Ruth was 14 months old.  Her mother Celia died of cancer the day before Ruth graduated from high school.   Ruth attended and graduated from Cornell University in 1954.  She married Martin one month after her graduation and their daughter was born in 1955.  They also have a son James Steven Ginsburg and he was born in 1965.  4* (I really liked this movie)

120 min, Bio directed by Mimi Leder and written by Daniel Stiepleman.  He is Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s nephew, with 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.

Note:  Imdb 6.9 out of 10, Roger Ebert 3 1`/2* Nell Minow, Rotten Tomatoes 74% critic 74% audience, Washington Post 2* out of 4* Mark Jenkins, RollingStone 3 ½* out of 5* Peter Travers, Metacritic 59 out of 100 with 40 critics 6.2 user scores with 45 reviews (27 positive, 10 mixed, 8 negative), Amazon 4.8* out of 5* with 418 reviews.

Special Note:  filmed at 276 St-Jaques West, Old Montreal, Canada.  Natalie Portman was originally cast in the role of Ruth but after four years stuck in development, she dropped out of the project.  Received 17 votes on 2014’s Blacklist competition.  This list ranks the best unproduced scripts of that year.