THE JOY OF ‘SEXES’
Stone, Carell aces in ’70s net & gender faceoff
A FILM BASED on a true story should have three things: Strong characters, fierce conflict and a fresh angle.
“Battle of the Sexes” serves up all of them.
The movie chronicles the famous Bobby Riggs-Billie Jean King tennis challenge of 1973, in which the aging hustler called out not only one of the game’s best female players, but its strongest feminist voice.
You’re so equal, get on the court and face me, Riggs brayed. Or get back in the kitchen.
The sexism was pretty ugly then, and often at its ugliest from famous men — the film shows Howard Cosell “complimenting” King on TV by announcing she could be kind of pretty, if she tried harder.
King accepted Riggs’ challenge. But she already had another fight on her hands — the battle to hide her new life as a gay woman.
“Battle of the Sexes” faults on some facts. But it aces the important things — the tennis and the politics and the people.
Directors Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris capture every lob of that hard-fought match in crisp, overhead shots.
And they’re just as focused on the sexists and bigots, ready for their closeup and a chance to repeat that men are simply superior, and women loving women are sick.
The film also sees some things in a new way, thanks largely to its two powerful stars.
At first, Emma Stone seems miscast as King — too slight, too shy, too girlish. But she gets the jock’s determination, and her vulnerability as she slowly acknowledges her real desires.
Steve Carell, meanwhile, takes a hustling clown and turns him into a human being. His Riggs is a showoff and a sexist. But he’s also flat-out funny — and, like King, hungry for respect.
Sometimes Dayton and Faris seem to think they’re making “Little Miss Sunshine” again, cramming the movie with oddballs.
Occasionally, the script takes lazy shortcuts (King’s husband wasn’t just a good-natured hunk, but a real force behind that first Virginia Slims tour.)
But then the film remembers its main characters, and their clear conflict. And just when you’ve gotten lulled by some calm, easy volleys, it hits another beautiful overhead smash.
The match may be winner-take-all. But nobody leaves this film a loser.