TENNIS FILM MAKES ITS POINT
This decades-old, on-court rivalry is still relevant in today’s world
It may be hard for modern cinemagoers to believe, but there was once a time in which women were not considered the equal of men.
Let me clarify in case the sarcasm didn’t come through. Battle of the Sexes, about the tennis match between Billie Jean King and self-described male chauvinist pig Bobby Riggs, has important things to say about the state of the world today, in spite of being set almost half a century ago, in 1973.
Not that the film is a boring tirade. In the hands of co-directors Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris (Little Miss Sunshine, Ruby Sparks), this is a funny, entertaining romp, enlivened by judicious use of mid-century music, cars, architecture, décor, fashion, hairstyles and colour palettes.
To steal a line from Simon Beaufoy’s screenplay, it puts the show in chauvinism.
Emma Stone stars as 29-yearold King, although she doesn’t even speak to the 55-year-old Riggs (Steve Carell) until a half hour into the movie.
First, she’s battling for equality as one of the original members of the all-female Virginia Slims Circuit, founded by promoter Gladys Heldman after women at Wimbledon took home a fraction of the prize money awarded to men. Sarah Silverman plays Heldman, having a ball in big hair, bigger glasses and flared trousers.
King is also fighting a much more private battle, trying to figure out her sexual preference after meeting and flirting with Marilyn Barnett (Andrea Riseborough), a hairdresser in the movie, though in real life she was King’s secretary.
When she asks the tennis star “do you like dancing?” it’s clear she has more in mind.
There’s almost enough going on here without the climactic tennis match, which is beautifully shot by cinematographer Linus Sandgren (La La Land) to emphasize the emotions and chess-match strategy as much as the raw power of the game.
King is almost backed into the contest after Riggs handily defeats top-ranked Margaret Court, four months before the ultimate battle.
Court, played as a paragon of old-fashioned values by Jessica
McNamee, remains a polarizing figure even today — now a pastor, she was recently barred from her hometown tennis club after speaking out against a nonbinding referendum in Australia for marriage equality for LGBT couples.
But the movie’s energy is directed toward the big match at the Houston Astrodome, with the media-savvy Riggs doing all he can to milk the event for money and fame.
Carell plays the man as a buffoon but a self-aware one, with a host of peccadillos including a gambling addiction, which he engages in with his shrink. (That’s some reverse psychology!)
Praising Carell’s clownish performance may seem like a backhanded compliment, but when you’re talking tennis that’s actually a good thing.
Besides, in a key moment we hear a commentator note: “The comedy has gone out of Bobby Riggs.”
Battle of the Sexes may have laughs aplenty, but at its heart is the serious issue of equality, and the argument is well served.