Felicity Jones Is Ruth Bader Ginsburg in Trailer for Mimi Leder’s ‘On the Basis of Sex’
It’s a big year for the Notorious RBG. The history-making Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg got the documentary treatment earlier this year with Betsy West and Julie Cohen’s RBG, which has become a surprising box office hit in a jam-packed summer movie season. And this fall she’ll get the biopic treatment.
Director Mimi Leder finally returns to the big screen with On the Basis of Sex, starring Felicity Jones as Ginsburg. The film charts the liberal justice’s life before she was appointed to the Supreme Court, when she was making a name for herself as a lawyer fighting for gender equality. Armie Hammer, perfectly cast once again as a preppy white dude, is her husband Martin Ginsburg, while Justin Theroux, reuniting with his The Leftovers director, rocks a solid ‘70s stache.
The first trailer shows Jones’ Ginsburg deciding to take on a case in which, interestingly enough, she argues a man is being discriminated against. It sounds like its the real-life Weinberger v. Wiesenfeld case, which denied a widower Social Security benefits (only widows were granted benefits at the time). That case has a fun but of history too: Ginsburg won the case, and then 40 years later officiated the same widower’s wedding when he got remarried in 2014.
As excited as I am to see a figure like Ginsburg get a biopic, I’m most thrilled for Leder’s return to film. The Deep Impact director essentially landed in movie jail after her 1998 hit and spent more time directing on the small screen. She’s continued to do some incredible work for TV, and is responsible for some of the best episodes of HBO’s The Leftovers, but hasn’t directed a feature since 2009’s Thick as Thieves. Are we looking at a potential awards season campaign for Leder? I sure hope so. On the Basis of Sex, which also stars Kathy Bates, Sam Waterston, Jack Reynor and Cailee Spaeny, hits theaters this Christmas.
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