The equal pay activist Lilly Ledbetter made headlines in 2007 when she sued her employer, Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company, for gender discrimination, resulting in a Supreme Court case and, eventually, the passage of the Fair Pay Act.
“Lilly,” directed by Rachel Feldman, arrives a year after Ledbetter’s death at 86. With a cringey inspirational tone, the movie weaves in Ledbetter’s advocacy work and court case with moments from her personal life.
Beginning in 1979, when Ledbetter (Patricia Clarkson) started working for Goodyear, this hagiographic film shows the working-class mother of two as a steely, principled matriarch from Alabama going toe-to-toe with her condescending colleagues. Before retiring, she discovers that her monthly salary is significantly less than her male co-workers — a glaring discrepancy considering she’s the company’s only female supervisor.
Distracting pop-music needle drops and hammy performances give “Lilly” the feel of a Lifetime movie. When the story jumps forward to the 2000s, shifting from black-and-white to color, the film speeds through Ledbetter’s initial court case and positions her as something of a celebrity, taking meetings with representatives in Congress and eventually campaigning for Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaigns.
Archival clips (featuring mostly Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who wrote the dissenting opinion when the rest of the Supreme Court ruled against Ledbetter’s lawsuit) do the work of explaining Ledbetter’s steady rise in the public consciousness. But the frequency with which the clips are employed feels unintentionally surreal and glitchy, adding more tonal weirdness to an already disjointed and mawkish film.
Lilly
Rated PG-13 for workplace abuse and depictions of illness. Running time: 1 hour 33 minutes. In theaters.
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