If you’re over age 50, you likely recall the Billie Jean King-Bobby Riggs tennis match from 1973, a feminist landmark and time-capsule of male chauvinist history that attracted one of the biggest audiences ever for a sporting event at that time. Over 100 million worldwide watched the 29-year old Number 2 ranked women’s champion take on the 55-year old former men’s champ in a $100,000 tournament that’s now been dramatized in BATTLE OF THE SEXES, a flawed but mostly entertaining look at a repressive time when women athletes weren’t taken seriously and ‘lesbian’ was a dirty word.
Loudmouth hustler and gambling addict Bobby Riggs (Steve Carrel), was a self-confessed ‘male chauvinist pig’ even though he lived off the family money of his second wife Priscilla (Elizabeth Shue). Riggs had been a tennis champ decades earlier and was still active on the senior circuit in the early ‘70s. He got the crazy idea to challenge any “hairy-legged feminist” to a match, just to prove male superiority in the sport, then handily defeated number 1-ranked Margaret Court (Jessica McNamee). His ego kicked into high gear, he boosted the prize purse and the number 2 player, Billie Jean King (Emma Stone), accepted his challenge. King had recently butted heads with Jack Kramer (Bill Pullman) the head of the ATP (Association of Tennis Professionals) over women’s place in the sport and saw the battle with Riggs as a chance to prove that she should be taken just as seriously as her male counterparts. King was also battling her own sexual identity as she found herself falling for Marilyn Barnett (Andrea Riseborouh), the women’s team hairdresser, though she was married to male model-handsome Larry King (Austin Stowell).
BATTLE OF THE SEXES is a fun time, with the right mix comedy and drama, telling a true story so lively and cinematic that I’m surprised hasn’t been filmed before. Married co-directors Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris do an impressive job in balancing the King’s complicated love life with the media circus at the center of the story .The script by Oscar-winner Simon Beaufoy (SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE) portrays Riggs as a clown, which he was. A proud clown at that, he promised to put the ‘show’ in chauvinism. His view toward women, whom he believed shouldn’t be on the tennis court—unless they’re there to retrieve stray balls, was best summed up when he claimed to love them “in the bedroom and in the kitchen”, yet Riggs in THE BATTLE OF THE SEXES is never unlikeable for a second. Carrel was born to play Riggs, and the actor’s comic chops come in handy, especially during a series of training and public relations montages that include a giant racket, a Burt Reynolds-inspired nude photo shoot, and Riggs chasing sheep off the court dressed as Little Bo Peep. A scene where he disrupts his Gamblers Anonymous meeting with some horrible advice is a gut-buster and I honestly can’t imagine another actor in this role. But Riggs isn’t the villain of the film, nor is Larry King, who was always in his wife’s corner, urging her to fight gender establishment politics. The real bully in BATTLE OF THE SEXES is Pullman’s small-minded and intimidating Jack “It’s a man’s game” Kramer and there’s a superbly-written scene near the end when King tells him off, explaining the dangerous difference between Riggs attitudes towards women athletes and his.
My main problem with BATTLE OF THE SEXES is that Riggs is such a colorful and charismatic character that Ms King often seems dull by contrast. Stone is good, playing King with conviction and with all the innocent, wide-eyed optimism of a woman determined to change the world, but whenever the movie focused on her, I found myself getting impatient, wanting the action to move back to Mr. Riggs. The many scenes between King and lover Marilyn are redundant, and the obvious “sexism is bad” message is hammered home again and again, resulting in some pacing issues. Directors Dayton and Valerie do a credible job of capturing the mood of the times through fashion and hairstyles and ever-present TVs in the background (shots of Howard Cosell digitally interacting with the film’s actors are startling and effective). While I think this is a less-lazy approach than drenching the soundtrack with period songs (though there are a few), Nicholas Brittell’s drab score underwhelms. Despite some weaknesses, BATTLE OF THE SEXES is a funny and engrossing crowd-pleaser with strong performances and plenty of memorable moments.
3 1/2 of 5 Stars
