‘BATTLE OF THE SEXES’

PG-13 2:01 ★★½★ There’s two sides to a tennis court and “Battle of the Sexes” aims to dramatize every emotional inch of the famed match between 55-year-old Bobby Riggs, a former World No. 1, and Billie Jean King, perhaps the world’s most patient female tennis player of all time.

If you lived through it, you’ll get to see the overblown exhibition game get turned into a borderline WWE cage fight all over again. But in this fictionalized sports dramedy, the tennis veterans swing for something greater than themselves.

Riggs (Steve Carell) is bored. To him, tennis has

become another way to gamble and entertain his billionaire boy’s club. As the namesake match revs up, we see his cracks. But it’s the faces of his family that illustrate the pain and frustration of being close to a liar and serial gambler. But remember, he’s the villain and he’s honestly not played sinister enough. His gooier moments often fall flat because we all know better than to trust him. They feel forced and the Riggs role might’ve worked better if he relished more of the attention when he wasn’t in front of the TV camera. There’s no shortage of ugliness for him to feed off.

King (Emma Stone) is looking for respect on and off the court. She certainly gets the more interesting story as she juggles a love square between her human Ken Doll husband, a sizzling affair with a hairdresser (Andrea Riseborough, doing a lot with very little) and the game of tennis.

As twistedly amusing as it was to watch Carell deliver misogynistic oneliners, Stone’s steadfast performance owns the movie.

It’s not the Oscar-buzzed performance I heard about before walking into the theater, but it’s admirable and very human.

But too often, she’s left with little time to explore her new love. She gets lost in the bewilderment of the affair and much of the conversation is told with painful stares. At times, it felt like a soap opera and

the first two acts didn’t build enough momentum for me.

Directors Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris know how to make a scene sting, just re-watch their 2006 effort “Little Miss Sunshine.” There’s still sly humor, a handful of tender moments but “Battle of the Sexes” lacks the oomph of a game-winning match point.

Starring: Emma Stone, Steve Carell, Andrea Riseborough, Sarah Silverman, Alan Cumming and Bill Pullman. (Some sexual content and partial nudity) — Nathan Poppe,

The Oklahoman