Did we really need a 10-minute "society might not like our lesbian relationship" scene set to Elton John's "Rocket Man" in the middle of Battle of the Sexes? It just seems so on-the-nose. And yeah, Billie Jean King was a hell of a tennis player who struck a tremendous blow for equal rights and pay for women athletes at a time when men shamelessly disrespected them. It seems, though, that directors Valerie Faris and Jonathan Dayton (the team behind 2006 indie sleeper hit Little Miss Sunshine) prefer to beat us over the head with a long and almost leering look at King's budding homosexuality and/or somehow-still-shocking examples of misogyny rather than let the legend's prowess and monumental victories stand out on their own.
Emma Stone (fresh off her Oscar win for La La Land) does bring the heat as King, a subtle combo of charmingly disarming and ferocious champion, but her phenomenal athletic ability takes a backseat to the drama unfolding off the court; namely, aging tennis player Bobby Riggs' (Steve Carell) last shot at the big time by stirring up controversy with his self-proclaimed male chauvinism. Riggs famously baited King into the 1973 exhibition match that pitted the sexes against each other—a match he lost.
There's a lot to be said for the writing here as King never lets Riggs' for-show sexism affect her so much as it seems to amuse her, which paints her as a natural born leader and competitor with her priorities firmly set. But when Sexes veers into some barely-there lesson about the important people in our lives, it starts to lose potency. King's husband, for example, is seemingly content to let her just do whatever the hell she wants while he buries his feelings and acts as her cheerleader. Riggs' strained relationships make an appearance as well, though not in a meaningful or deep enough way as to make us feel for him.
Regardless, the final showdown does stir up plenty of feelings and we can't help but succumb to King's magnetism (not that we didn't want to), even if the broader story is distilled a bit too much and the vast majority of supporting characters get relegated to simplistic for-or-against roles. This is especially disappointing given the caliber of actor in Sexes; Sarah Silverman particularly delights in a surprise turn for the veteran standup, and Bill Pullman is the perfect gentleman-sexist you love to hate. Thank goodness, though, that the casual sexism at play seems jarring and wrong, and not just in a that-was-the-time way. We've indeed come a long way (and still have a long way to go), but we owe King much thanks. It just would have been nice to have a more focused film to tell the tale.
7 + A pivotal event in American history – Glosses over a lot of the actual story
Battle of the Sexes
Directed by Faris and Dayton
With Stone, Carell, Silverman and Pullman
Violet Crown, Regal, PG-13, 121 min.
