Directed by Mimi Leder and starring Felicity Jones as Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Armie Hammer as her husband Martin, this upbeat film uses Ginsburg’s biography as a civics lesson, showing the courts as open to powerful arguments and reason in the 1970s as a reflection of a changing society — not so much leading social change as accepting it — and as Americans’ last line of defense against unfairness, injustice and despotism.  Jones looks little like the Justice, but grows into the part as we watch this razor sharp Brooklynite rise to the occasion of her life’s work. The film emphasizes her marriage as one of equals. She got into Harvard Law (and finished at Columbia) and onto the Supreme Court. But husband Marty Ginsburg got into Harvard first, and a mid-law-school medical crisis put Ruth in a position of attending lectures for his courses as well as hers — doubling her education even as she was facing a crushing workload.  When Ruth, who became a law professor because no New York law firm would hire her, was hunting for the test case that might unravel gender discrimination in the nation’s courts, Marty found an ingenious, back-door suit that, with his help, allowed her to change America forever. Laurie Baron will introduce the film and facilitate the discussion afterwards.

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