ALSO SHOWING

On the Basis of Sex Cert: 12A; Now showing

When a person becomes an icon, there is an inevitable tendency to be over reverential. Ruth Bader Ginsburg, the Notorious RBG, US Supreme Court justice, equality battler extraordinaire and octogenarian fitness fanatic is a most reasonable candidate for iconography, and reverence. However, Mimi Leder’s biopic of her is, as a result of this reverence, worthy, earnest, enjoyable indeed, but, unlike its subject, unremarkable.

This screenplay by RBG’s nephew, Daniel Stiepleman, sees the film open in the 1950s when RBG (Felicity Jones) and her husband Martin (Armie Hammer) are students in Harvard. With a point to prove as one of the first and few women in Harvard, RBG’s case is complicated further because not only does she have a baby, but her husband becomes gravely ill. But as the Ginsburgs work together at all times, theirs is a loving and lovely partnership that sees the quietly spoken law professor change US legal history one case at a time.

It’s a great story but Jones in the lead, although fine, is outshone by her co-workers. Kathy Bates flits in and Justin Theroux’s scene steals as a louder ACLU lawyer and Jack Reynor makes an appearance too. While there are some wonderful scenes and it all works well, I liked the generation gap in feminism between RBG and her teenage daughter (Cailee Spaeny), it lacks oomph. It’s solid and good, it’s just not excellent.