Ruth Bader Ginsberg: woman, wife, mother, lawyer, professor and revolutionary. To quote the movie’s tagline: It was a man’s world. So she changed it.

Before I give my thoughts on this film I would like to give a shout out to the staff at Limelight Tuggeranong. On the night I was there all their systems went down – they couldn’t sell tickets or run films – but they remained cheerful, kept the crowd informed and when power returned, processed tickets and got films going quickly and efficiently. Well done!

Before seeing this film I was aware of who Ruth Bader Ginsburg (known as RBG) is, and that she is a Supreme Court Justice, but I did not know how much work she had done to change the landscape of human rights in the USA. Wow.

Her story is so amazing that this biography needs no embellishment and, quite rightly, is told in a straightforward way. I actually had a sense of learning as I watched, of understanding more about a prominent feminist icon. Of seeing the society she had to contend with but still being entertained, engulfed in the story.  The screenwriter, Daniel Stiepleman, is RBG’s nephew so I think we can trust him for accuracy BUT one criticism levelled at the production has been that it adds to the legend, rather than revealing the woman.

However, I have a feeling that she is as we see her. That RBG is what the Harvard men would call a ‘straight arrow’. The way her husband and she supported each other publically and privately speaks to there being no skeletons to uncover. Or maybe Stiepleman is scared of his formidable aunt?

Tiny Felicity Jones (still 2cms taller than me) as RBG (who is shorter than me) is dwarfed even more by Armie Hammer (so tall he wears his own lightning rod) but both are delightfully believable in their roles. Jones owns the film but Hammer and Cailee Spaeny, who plays the Ginsbergs’ daughter Jane) sympathetically portray the support that Ruth needed to get done what she did.

Beautiful blondes in film have long been dismissed as shallow because of their looks and I feel this is the case with Hammer. He was fabulous in Call Me By Your Name but all the focus was on Timothée Chalamet. His Ilya (Man from U.N.C.L.E.) was brilliant and no handsome prince has pratfalled as well as him.

Director Mimi Leder’s most recent work has been in TV, with two of the series that everyone was talking about a couple of years ago – Shameless (USA version) and The Leftovers. The latter was the series where I learnt to hate cults and love Justin Theroux. In this film, Leder gives him a chance to shine as the legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union. Good job.

The final shots of this film are very moving – Felicity Jones ascending the steps of the Supreme Court fades into the real RBG doing the same. The look of calm determination on RBG’s face makes me hope that all the false reports of her death (thank you, yet again, cyber gossip) remain untrue for years to come.

Roslyn saw this film as a guest of Limelight Cinemas Tuggeranong.

Feature image: facebook.com/OTBOSFilmANZ