Battle Of The Sexes

Synopsis: The story of how the world’s Number 1 female tennis player, 29 year old Billy Jean King (Emma Stone), took on a 55 year old tennis has-been and self-proclaimed male chauvinist pig in what was in its day the most watched televised sports event of all time

Having seen James Erskine and Zara Hayes' excellent 2013 documentary, The Battle of the Sexes about the iconic 1973 tennis match between Billie Jean King and Bobby Riggs I was wondering what, other than Emma Stone and Steve Carell, the similarly gender equal directorial team of Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris would bring to the screen that was new. The answer is the personal dramas going on behind-the-scenes in the lives of the two players. In King’s case it was her blossoming lesbianism, in Rigg’s case his chronic gambling, and thereby, for both of them, marital troubles.  Unsurprisingly it is King’s sexual awakening that gets the bulk of the attention in the form of her relationship with a hairdresser Marilyn Barnett (Andrea Riseborough) who she meets while on tour with the Women’s Tennis Association, a break-away from the Lawn Tennis Association, the ruling body of American tennis who refused to offer equal prize money to male and female players.

Battle of the Sexes is a neat package with an impressive 1970s production design and engaging performances by Stone and Carell who appears to be carving out a niche for himself in sports biopics but is here unhampered by the huge proboscis he wore as John E. du Pont in Foxcatcher (2014). It is however a little too well-packaged with the script by Simon Beaufoy (he penned Slumdog Millionaire, 2008) erasing any distinction between fact and fiction whilst Dayton and Faris stage the narrative as a series of pointed scenes.

In this respect the gay card is overplayed with poor Alan Cumming having to camp it up as Ted, a stereotypical queen and be shoe-horned into the story periodically to remind us of the film’s LBGT cred. When Billie Jean (fortunately in the days before “BJ” became a standard item of casual sex) and Marilyn have their first night not only does Ted immediately recognize that she’s joined the club but so does her Christian Right rival Margaret Court (Jessica McNamee). Surely in 1973 this would have been a long bow to draw, at least for the latter.  As for a spurned-bu-supportive Marilyn appearing on cue in Billie Jean's dressing room before the big match and hovering in the background after it, well, that's got to be Beaufoy's embellishment.

Both in terms of writing and direction the film dresses up the facts with these kinds of conventional ruses. And equally, though Stone and Carell are very good facsimiles we rarely lose sight of them as actors playing historical characters. Ditto for Sarah Silverman and Bill Pullman in smaller roles. Dayton and Faris simply do not build enough dramatic momentum for the film to move beyond being high quality illustration.  

Battle of the Sexes is a pleasant-enough diversion but for greater satisfaction check out the 2013 documentary.

FYI: Steve Carell appeared as the suicidal uncle in Dayton and Faris' 2006 indie hit, Little Miss Sunshine.

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