“On the Basis of Sex” begins in 1954, when a young Ruth Bader Ginsburg (Felicity Jones) arrives for her first day at Harvard Law. She is one of nine women in an incoming class of 500, a disparity signaled by the sight of a blue dress in a sea of dark-toned suits. It’s the kind of image that more or less sums up the picture that follows — polished, effective, a bit obvious — but it also tells its own concise story. Ginsburg doesn’t fit in with this mostly male enclave, and she shouldn’t; one day she’ll surpass them all.

Directed by Mimi Leder (“Pay It Forward,” “Deep Impact”) from a script by Daniel Stiepleman (who happens to be Ginsburg’s nephew), “On the Basis of Sex” is the second cinematic crowd-pleaser about its subject to emerge this year, following Betsy West and Julie Cohen’s “RBG.” The emergence of first a hit documentary and now this slick, prosaic Hollywood biopic is a testament to Ginsburg’s legacy as a progressive icon and a tireless champion of women’s rights, but also to her startling ascendancy in the public imagination, her claim to the kind of cultural prominence rarely bestowed on octogenarian Supreme Court justices.