(spoiler free)
With the dust just about settling from ‘Borg Vs McEnroe’ we’re already back on cinematic centre court for biographical sports drama, ‘Battle of the Sexes’. This film is loosely based on the exhibition tennis match between Billie Jean King (Emma Stone) and Bobby Riggs (Steve Carell) in 1973. The film is directed by married couple Jonathan Dayton & Valerie Faris, the pair who brought us cult classic ‘Little Miss Sunshine’. Could this latest directorial effort of theirs garner a similar level of success though?
Well for starters the performances across the board are ace. Emma Stone plays the lead here, Billie Jean King a tennis player at the top of her game but one struggling with the gender politics of the sport. Stone continues on with her Oscar winning form fresh from ‘La La Land’ delivering one of her career best performances in this rather complex role. Steve Carell stars alongside Stone playing Bobby Riggs, an aged champion who struggles to keep his gambling addiction under wraps. Carell’s move into dramatic acting has expanded his range of roles drastically always to the audience’s benefit and his work here has created another thoroughly entertaining performance. Whilst the eccentric nature of his character, matched by Carell’s performance, creates much comedy he still offers plenty in the way of drama showcasing just what a versatile actor he is. The pair work very well together creating the nessecary chemistry required from the story. The supporting performances are excellent too with Andrea Riseborough and Sarah Silverman standing out especially.
Going into this film most viewers would probably assume that it’s largely about tennis, and whilst this is the element that brings everything together there’s much more going on in this story than just that. Both of the main character’s personal lives are addressed, of course their eventual rivalry gets much attention and the state of women in sport and in gender politics in general features heavily. Naturally certain sections of this narrative were more interesting than others and at times it felt like there were just too many components. I always found myself fascinated by Carell’s wonderfully absurd character and his extravagant antics so when the drama reverted back to Stone and her character’s more poignant drama I couldn’t help but feel slightly less interested. As result of this back and forth rally between the different elements of the narrative I thought the film suffered from some pacing problems. This was an issue that could maybe have been solved by some more actual scenes of tennis, of which the film has less than you might expect!
Nonetheless, ‘Battle of the Sexes’ is an entertaining film which gives spotlight to an inspiring woman and her passion for equality which can never be a bad thing. Furthermore, audiences are treated to moments of humour throughout thanks to Carell’s lively performance which should help to sustain interest when the story doesn’t. There’s a great likeness achieved to the real life figures and moments from their pasts but it’s most definitely the performances of the cast as a whole which are most worth making a racket about.
Written by Hamish Calvert
Rating – 6/10
Question: Dramatic or comedic Steve Carell?
(Leave your answers in the comments section below!)
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