CNN)Ruth Bader Ginsburg has become a cultural icon, as the fine CNN Films documentary "RBG" made clear. Yet a new movie chronicling an early chapter in the Supreme Court Justice's career, "On the Basis of Sex," proves more dutiful than delightful, only stirring to life toward the end.
Felicity Jones plays Ginsburg, introduced in 1956, when she's one of the few women at Harvard Law School. During a dinner with the starched dean (Sam Waterston), the nine female students are asked point blank to explain "why you're occupying a place at Harvard that could have gone to a man."
After a health scare involving her husband Marty (Armie Hammer), the movie rather abruptly jumps ahead to 1970. At that point Ginsburg is teaching law, before she becomes involved in the sex-discrimination case that not only provides the title but which set in motion her scintillating track record arguing before the High Court.