I feel like sometimes the problem with watching a biopic is that your personal enjoyment can depend greatly on your familiarity and attachment to the subject matter. There are some exceptions to this (I really never knew much about Tonya Harding, yet I loved I, Tonya), but I’ve generally found it harder to enjoy biopics of people that I’m not passionate about. This kind of thing happened for me with On the Basis of Sex. I really had no interest in seeing it, but it was a week of scarce releases at the movies, and so I asked my girlfriend what she’d most want to see. She wanted to see this movie, because she “loves Ruth Bader Ginsburg,” so even though I didn’t care much about it, I saw it anyway.

Perhaps it’s shameful that I don’t know this, but I really wasn’t at all familiar with who Ruth Bader Ginsburg was prior to seeing On the Basis of Sex, so I had no expectations for what the movie was going to be about or how I’d feel about it. From what I now know, she is a Supreme Court judge who is most well-known for pioneering the women’s rights movement. On the Basis of Sex chooses to mostly focus on her early days, as more of an “origin story” than anything else. We see Ruth go through college, start her family, struggle to find work as a lawyer due to her gender, and then take on a huge case that helped change sexual discrimination laws. It’s pretty interesting stuff, and it was quite informative for someone like me that wasn’t really too familiar with the story.

I brought up the “lack of attachment towards a biopic” issue because that may have tainted my personal enjoyment of the movie here. Look, if you’re passionate about Ruth Bader Ginsburg, then you’ll probably love On the Basis of Sex. I’m just not, so I didn’t feel that passion during the movie. And quite honestly, I’ve seen so many of these discrimination movies in recent years that a lot of them are starting to blend together, so for me personally I can’t imagine this movie sticking out for me in the next few years. That’s not to say that it’s a bad movie by any means, it’s just not something that’s particularly memorable for me.

I did enjoy my time with On the Basis of Sex, though. I think what makes it most worth it is Felicity Jones’s performance as Ruth. It should be noted that the supporting cast is great as well, with some good performances coming from Armie Hammer and Justin Theroux as well, but Felicity Jones definitely steals the show here. I’ve wanted to see more of her ever since Rogue One, so I’m happy to see her in another feature role, because she’s definitely great. The other big compliment I do have for the movie is that I really enjoyed the focus on Ruth’s family life during it. I think I enjoyed those scenes more than anything else, and in particular I thought that the relationship between Ruth and her daughter was really interesting.

At the end of the day, I can’t give On the Basis of Sex a glowing recommendation from me personally. I do think that people that are really passionate about Ruth Bader Ginsburg or the women’s rights movement will probably love it a lot more than I did, though, so take my opinion with a grain of salt if you fall into one of these camps. Like I said, it was a movie that my girlfriend really wanted to see, and she really liked it, so chances are you will too if it’s a movie that actually interests you. For me, I feel like there’s many other better movies out there, so while I did enjoy my time with On the Basis of Sex, it’s not something I ever plan on watching again.

3.5/5