Ahead of Time

Although Gruber's personal life and latter accomplishments are mostly addressed via a few closing sentences, "Ahead" remains a fleet and fitting tribute.

Ahead of Time follows Ms. Gruber to speaking engagements and encounters with relatives and old friends. Ever present are her lucid memory and articulate, compassionate bearing. She is an inspiration for career women, certainly, but also for us all.

It's Gruber's own remembrances (and a wealth of accompanying archival photos and film footage) that best mark her life as a case study in pioneering feminist courage, ambition and individualism.

The unspooling of her life is a truly fascinating yarn of proto-feminist achievement and humbling empathy.

It's clear by the end that one Ruth Gruber is worth more than 100 pundits fighting about partisan politics.

Wisely letting his lively, articulate nonagenarian subject narrate her life story through interviews and lectures, debuting director Bob Richman (a noted indie cameraman) compellingly blends a plethora of choice archival materials and contempo footage.

Richman's no-nonsense approach, which relies heavily on interviews with the eloquent, 98-year-old Gruber, feels more suited to a televised biography.