Plot: The true story of the 1973 Tennis match between Billie Jean King and Bobby Riggs.

I follow a lot of sport, and Tennis is the one I follow in most detail. With that, and seeing the 2013 film documentary of these events, I was pretty excited to see how this would turn out as a feature film.

The story of this match from 1973 is so historic and pivotal that it really elevated women in sport and make Tennis the premier women's sport that it is today.

I was loving the casting choices of Emma Stone and Steve Carrell as our two leads, and with Stone collecting an Best Actress Oscar earlier this year, I was hoping her hot-streak would continue in this.
Also, in terms of the timing of this release, it is spot on. Given whats been going lately in the media in regards to equality, this could not have been any more perfect.

I felt pretty satisfied with this in the end. It touched on all the correct things that happened during that time. So I was happy that it will make people understand all the critical moments that got us to where we are today. I was enjoying Stone and Carrrell perfectly personifying the characters personalities.
The second half of the film starts to show you that it's the type of story that you would not believe was true. I had forgotten so much of the general circus-esque antics in the build-up to the match itself.
Then as we get to the match, it really transported you to that time period. From the costumes, sets and even the way it was shot looked like genuine archive footage. It was almost scary how exact they got everything to look how it did back then.

While Billie Jean King is the central character, it was Steve Carrell who was the stand-out as Bobby Riggs. He showed the true spirit of Riggs. While he purposely came across as a chauvinist of the highest order, it was purposely emphasized to put on a show, and that's what he did well, and Billi Jean knew that. That's what made them great together, especially in the press conferences.
Emma Stone was good as Billie Jean. It's not going to win her any awards. But I was happy the way it turned out. It showed her characters intent on what she wanted out of this event really well and I think the real Billie Jean would be happy with this.
There were a few very pleasing supporting performances. Particularly by Sarah Silverman, Alan Cumming, Bill Pullman and Elizabeth Shue.

I'm going to harsh now in this portion of the review. While I did enjoy it, I think it did play this rather safe. I think people might have problems with it. I can see people going into this expecting a serious drama giving what's been going on lately. While it does have moments of that, it does come off as being a bit fluffy in its presentation. I think what people need to understand, is that the true events had a big 'show' element to it and the two people at the forefront of this, especially Riggs, embraced it. The dark side of this match-up were the people behind all this razzmatazz.

There was also an interesting side-story happening behind closed doors involving Billie Jean and her personal life. I think if it delved a bit deeper in that aspect, then maybe this would have been a bit spikier in its themes.

Also, I think the Tennis scenes might not feel gripping enough to non-followers of the sport. It is documented perfectly and looked exact to the real match itself. But in terms of being cinematic, I don't feel it worked. I think it would have been tough to make it work on both sides. So at least, the route they went down looked as good as it could have been.

Despite all that, I enjoyed it and I was happy with the execution. Stone and Carrell were great together and were the top choices for playing King and Riggs.
I hope a lot go and see it and not just to be entertained by it, but to understand the history around it.

Rating: 7/10