I was not much of a fan of Dayton & Faris’s surprise hit Little Miss Sunshine, and Steve Carell’s dramatic turns in the Oscar nominated films Foxcatcher or The Big Short, so I went into the new film Battle of the Sexes, which features Carell’s male chauvinist tennis legend/compulsive gambler challenging Emma Stone’s trailblazing athlete to a spectacular exhibition match, with some hesitation.
It’s a very warm, very affectionate, crowd-pleasing star vs. star flick about the real life “Battle of the Sexes” that captivated the world in 1973. It’s not an especially complex or deep movie but maybe that’s a good thing — Little Miss Sunshine was good for warmth but lost me when it tried for profundity. Here, the profundity, the meaning, the significance, it’s all baked into the story, so the movie doesn’t have to strain itself, but rather allows itself to be a fun and lovable picture.
The two stars are both in excellent form, especially Stone as Billie Jean King, who is simultaneously in complete control of her craft as a tennis player, and utterly green when it comes to her own sexuality and emotions. King goes on a journey of self-discovery while the world begins to focus its attention on her, falling for Andrea Riseborough’s hairdresser character Marilyn, a self-assured, self-enlightened modern woman in touch with herself in a way that King is not (at the beginning of the story at least.)
It’s really refreshing to see a same-sex love story told in a mainstream, PG-13 film with big stars, I have to say. At the same time, I found that with the amount of time dedicated to the romance, it should have been somewhat better developed — while Billie Jean’s attraction to the effervescent Marilyn is understandable, Stone’s King seems so mono-focused on tennis that Riseborough’s devotion to her feels somewhat undeveloped. Still, that’s a question of “not as good as it could or should have been” rather than bad.
Another issue I had was that the tennis scenes should’ve been given more weight, especially early in the film. “But,” I can her my detractors cry already “the film is not REALLY about tennis!” Well, yes and no — the film is foremost about the characters and then the culture, but with the characters so focused on their own tennis performance, we as the audience should have a better idea of how they play, what they DO on the court. Still, by the end, I was practically pumping my fist in excitement and got a little choked up at the end — this is just a naturally compelling story told well, and acted even better.
There’s definitely a version of this movie with more fangs, more anger, and that version might very well be better, but at the same time that’s not what this movie is or is intended to be, and there’s nothing wrong with that. It lacks teeth (except for Carrell’s prosthetic chompers) but it has heart. Can I guarantee you’ll have a good time at it? Not 100%. But I’d take the odds on it. (Was that last line cheesy? Yeah, but that’s what kind of movie this is.)