REVIEW: Battle of the Sexes

Courtesy of Fox Searchlight

I’ve been a fan of Emma Stone since she starred in the little-seen, quickly-canceled Fox drama Drive a decade ago. However, it was her breakthrough performance in 2010’s Easy A that made me realize she was going to be a superstar. I predicted that film would do for her what Pretty Woman did for Julia Roberts, which turned out to be pretty accurate.

She won Best Actress for La La Land last year and she might just earn herself a repeat nomination (if not a back-to-back victory) thanks to her outstanding work as Billie Jean King in the new drama Battle of the Sexes. The film itself is your standard biopic fare (a historical figure’s rise, stumbles, the personal drama she encounters along the way to ultimate victory and a lot of “dramatic reimagining”), but Stone and co-star Steve Carell – staging a mini-Crazy, Stupid, Love. reunion – elevate the material above its middling execution.

The film begins in 1972, when King, the women’s world tennis champion, launches a battle for equality in the sport. The women sell just as many tickets as the men, but they’re paid significantly less. Ex-men’s champ Bobby Riggs (Carell), recognizing a publicity opportunity when he sees one, convinces King to play him in a match billed as the “Battle of the Sexes,” which would become one of the most watched televised sports events of all time, reaching 90 million viewers around the world.

As their rivalry heats up – which Riggs purposely escalates, in true pro wrestling villain fashion, by adopting a male chauvinist persona – the athletes’ personal lives become more dramatic as well. King, married to a loving, immensely understanding man (Austin Stowell), struggles with her sexuality when she becomes attracted to a hairdresser (Andrea Riseborough) she meets on the competition circuit. Riggs struggles to control his gambling addiction, which threatens his marriage to a wonderful woman (Elisabeth Shue).

Directors Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris (who also worked with Carell on Little Miss Sunshine), working from a screenplay by Simon Beaufoy (Slumdog Millionaire), are clearly committed to period accuracy. Battle of the Sexes actually looks like it was shot in the ’70s.

Stellar work from cinematographer Linus Sandgren, production designer Judy Becker, art director Alexander Wei and costume designer Mary Zophres helps transport the audience nearly five decades into the past and allows Stone and Carell to disappear into their real-life characters. The two leads are also supported by a strong ensemble. In addition to Stowell and Shue, actors including Sarah Silverman, Natalie Morales, Bill Pullman and Alan Cumming deliver memorable performances.

Unfortunately, the one actress who rings false is one of the most vital. Riseborough, as the woman Riggs risks her marriage and career for, exudes almost no charisma and demonstrates absolutely no chemistry with Stone. In a movie with less talented lead performers, this would’ve been a casting mistake big enough to derail the entire operation. Instead, it simply left me wondering if a different actress would’ve made me like the movie more.

Battle of the Sexes is rated PG-13 for some sexual content and partial nudity.

Grade: B