Battle of the Sexes

Battle of the Sexes is an entertaining if utterly conventional film about one of the 1970s strangest events--the tennis match between the greatest female player at the time, Billie Jean King, and Bobby Riggs, a former champ who at 55 had remade himself into a carnival huckster. The film, directed by Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris and written by Simon Beaufoy, is firmly on the side of the women, but strangely makes Riggs a sympathetic character and doesn't any answer any questions about either them.

It is 1972, and King (Emma Stone) and other female tennis players are enraged about receiving less prize money than the men. After failing to convince the head of the tennis association, Jack Kramer (Bill Pullman, playing the cardboard villain of the film) she and the others form their own tour, sponsored by Virginia Slim cigarettes.

Meanwhile, Riggs is pushing papers for his father-in-law's company. He has supposedly sworn off gambling, but plays tennis with others under weird conditions, like playing while holding the leashes of two dogs. When he wins a Rolls-Royce, his wife (Elisabeth Shue, nice to see her again) kicks him out. He comes up with the idea of challenging female tennis players to prove men are better.

Here was the problem with the King-Riggs match--nobody in their right mind would think that a male pro at the top of his game would lose to King or any female tennis player. Stan Smith, Rod Laver, or Ken Rosewall, top players at that time, would have destroyed her. Therefore the whole think was specious--King was playing a 55-year-old man. When Riggs plays and beats Margaret Court, another top player, King is forced to play him just to uphold the dignity of the women players, but all she's doing is beating an over-the-hill hustler.

The other major plot point is King's sexuality. A hairdresser (Andrea Riseborough) takes a shine to her and seduces her. King is married to the world's most patient man, but succumbs to her deepest desires, and not long after that would come out as a lesbian. I found this part of the film to be the least interesting, and a drag on the rest of the picture.

The match itself, which I watched live back in the day, uses much of Howard Cosell's actual commentary (Rosie Casals, here played by Natalie Morales, deserves her own movie). We get the groan-inducing cliche of cuts to the various characters watching, whether in person or on television. King beat Riggs rather easily, but Riggs did all right--for a few years after he was a ubiquitous presence on televesion.

Steve Carell plays Riggs, and I can't imagine anyone who was more suited for the role. He's terrific. Stone, with a brunette wig and round glasses, doesn't really look like King, but she's fine if not transcendent. I liked Alan Cumming in a small role as the flamboyant dress designer for the women's tour. He senses King is gay, and has a nice line that someday people will be able to love who they want without embarrassment.

Interestingly, the film makes no mention of the allegations that Riggs threw the match because of tremendous gambling debts. King denies it, as does Riggs' son, but there is evidence to suggest he did. Whether true or not, that would have made a much more interesting movie.