But let's first start with the movie I FINALLY saw, "On The Basis of Sex!"
"On The Basis of Sex" (director: Mimi Leder)
I originally wanted to see this movie when it first came out, as it was obviously very historic in it's own way and with all the nonsense happening on Capitol Hill, The Honorable Ruth Bader Ginsberg has been a fixture for many of us, especially with the new "RBG" movie coming out prior to this movie. Now, did I think this would be a stellar movie? No, I did not. But then again, not all great movies need to be flashy in order to be good. And yes, this is not a movie that is going to win any sort of Oscar, but that doesn't mean this movie was horrible. In fact, this was a very wonderful movie. Despite the fact that many things were obviously exaggerated (seriously people, if you have EVER taken even ONE law class, you would know that it would NOT be possible to attend your own classes and your significant others' classes, no matter how hard a worker you are), the intention of Ruth (played fabulously by Felicity Jones) is there to make known--that she wants to help change things in the United States--is not lost to anyone. While she does get sidetracked--and I am not diminishing that you can still effect change by teaching it--Ruth ends up getting back into the ring when her husband Martin (affectionately played by Armie Hammer) presents her with a case of sex discrimination against a MAN. That the tables could be turned to try and use the opposite sex to help the cause of women is almost something that Ruth didn't seem to consider. But it's a FABULOUS case of quid pro quo and makes for something exciting!
The dialogue is fabulous, the wit and humor provided give you a good chuckle. While obviously things are changed around, it's a wonderful piece of cinema. And I highly recommend looking at the ACTUAL case, as it was significantly different scenario than what they show in the movie: Weinberger v. Wiesenfeld
"To Kill A Mockingbird" (adapted for stage by Aaron Sorkin)
When I was gifted tickets to this, I originally groaned. Not going to lie, this book has been done to DEATH for me. I mean, who hasn't read this book or performed this play to some extent in middle or high school? Seriously, by the time you are done with it, you never really wanted to see it again (save for a few people who enjoyed it, and honestly, I question who could enjoy it with how depressing it is, in spite of wonderful dialogue). But, the person who gifted me the tickets has never really steered me wrong when it came to shows, so I decided I would go in with an open mind. And boy am I GLAD I did! This play is BRILLIANT! The way that it has been adapted has allowed for a lot of the themes and the tone to still be prevalent, with the children--Scout, Jem and Dill--providing the narration while also being a part of the story. Jeff Daniels provides a command performance as Atticus, although many people will say that there are some differences between the book version and the play version, and honestly, that's fine. In fact, both Sorkin AND Daniels address this sort of thing:
This play TRULY rings forth with dialogue that many people could probably relate to today, and many themes that, in our current political clime, seem all too familiar. In a sense, Sorkin has brought forth Harper Lee's original dialogue and given it a modern voice, the sort of voice that we all need to recognize--not everything can be rationalized, not everything can be explained away. We might all want to try and be fair to those we know, but there comes a point when we can't, when we need to decide. And this play forces us to really take a good, long look at what we should "All rise" and stand for.
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