This story has more twists and turns than a second-rate soap opera.

After playing with our expectations, this turns out to be a very different sort of film.

The acting in this movie is really good.

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

This was more about Billie Jean King struggling with her sexuality and trying to keep it a secret from her husband, sponsors, and fans, and less about women's rights and pay equality. Her husband was very understanding and patient with Billie which i found surprising. An ok movie the acting was good but i was reading a book at the same time so it didn't really hold my attention.

Battle of the Sexes, directed by Dayton and Faris, tells the true story of the 1973 tennis match between number one women's tennis player Billie Jean King (Emma Stone) and ex-champ and serial gambler Bobby Riggs (Steve Carell).In the wake of the sexual revolution in the 1970s, these two tennis champions headlined an event that reflected the society around it and it seems to do so again now. The issues reflected and meditated on through the movie are ones of the 70s and certainly now as issues of gender, women and the wage gap are still ever-present in our society, the film does very well not to turn the movie into a rallying cry or be too serious in its telling of these issues.This is to the films credit as it remains entertaining throughout, the story of these two tennis stars is absolutely ludicrous (thanks to Bobby Riggs) at times and it's hard to believe some of these things actually happened, the film assures you - they in fact did. The characters are absolutely nailed, Steve Carell manages to pull off Bobby Riggs with such ease that I couldn't help but wonder if he was even trying. Astonishingly he is overshadowed by the performance of Emma Stone as Billie Jean King, who absolutely embodies her character in every sense, it's a remarkable performance (I smell Oscar buzz). There is so much vibrant character and storytelling - all through Stone's performance, however, once you actually realise the breadth of depth to the character of Bobby Riggs, you may agree in my thinking that he was rather underdeveloped in the film.There is a chance this is intentional as the women overcoming oppression is the figurehead of this film. Still, it can come across as more of a Billie Jean King biopic, highlighted by the subplot being centred around King also which works but it can feel intrusive on the main plot throughout the movie.Aside from that small issue, the tonal consistency in the movie is truly commendable, there is a terrific effort made to not demonize Bobby Riggs as per Billie Jean King's own words "he was one of my idols" - it was just an act and the film does a great job of painting these two characters lives outstandingly, it is a very human telling of true events and as said is just having a bit fun while presenting the issues and not trying to turn the film into a rallying cry.The direction of the film is done very well, it does a great job of accompanying the embodying performances by really becoming a 'film made in the 70s' rather than a film made to look like the 70s. A credit to the cinematography but mainly to, the production design and costumes, they are fantastic, it all aids the film massively and helps to engage you as the audience member, tennis is made barmy and equitably interesting. Which is what this movie does utterly right, it engages you enough with the source material that you leave wanting to know more about these characters, as I left I wanted to see if Bobby Riggs actually did dress in a Miss Bow Peep outfit. It just proves that sometimes truth really is stranger than fiction.In this entertaining story of issues still ever-present in our society today, there is still a lot of fun to be had. The characters are embodied remarkably, sadly Riggs is slightly underdeveloped and the movie is more of a Billie Jean King biopic. Still, it manages to make the world of tennis vibrant and interesting and perhaps rather mad. Come for the fun, leave with a curiosity.

It is 1973. World no 1 female tennis player Billie Jean King, arguing that women are vastly underpaid by comparison with male professional tennis players, is pressured into playing an exhibition match against 55-year old Bobby Riggs, a star player from 25 years earlier. At the same time, she - and husband Larry - are coming to terms with her lesbianism.Emma Stone is Billie Jean King and Steve Carrell is Bobby Riggs - high profile performers in this adaptation of a true story which switches between Riggs' gambling and humorous showmanship, King's clandestine and troubled exploration of her feminine sexual side, the male dominated tennis establishment, and Riggs' own marriage issues. It is well acted, and the period detail is good. The trouble is, I didn't really care very much. I felt sympathy for Larry King who came across as a really good person (and the credits captions seemed to confirm this), but I cared little for the main characters. And that's where this film falls down - without an emotional investment in the principals, there is little reason for this film to exist. The writing fails it.

Having just finished watching this film and having read some of the user reviews, I see as much confusion in the reviews as I did in the film. I will keep this short so will not regurgitate the "plot" but a huge gripe for me was Emma Stone being cast as BJK. I realise this film will be watched in the main by people who never saw her play, can't remember what she looked like or possibly have never heard of her - in which case they won't realise she was a mere 5'2", small and dumpy, nothing like the tall, athletic-looking Stone. Having been an avid tennis fan for 40 years, I found this jarring, especially as the tennis double used for Stone is a 5'10" player.So many people have praised her performance - why? It was nothing better than ordinary and she was surrounded by a bevy of women players who largely remained nameless and in the background (with the exception of Rosie Casals) even though they would have been names in their own right. So there's an own goal straight away in a film about women being sidelined, ignored and not taken seriously - let's do the same thing to them 45 years later when we tell the story! Oh my mistake, they do shine a rather nasty spotlight on Australian legend Margaret Court, but none of it in a complimentary light of course.I have seen reviews complaining that the sexism was cartoony and too overt, a sledgehammer rather than the "subtle" depiction one viewer would have preferred - apparently unaware that sexism back then was a way life, mainstream and considered acceptable in public, private and anywhere else. It's what BJK was fighting to change, remember? Another reviewer lamenting Alan Cumming's performance as an aide to the BJK team, not realising he was actually a celebrated dress designer that specialised in tennis wear and had dressed just about every women's champion over the course of 40 years.Films about sport are usually over-simplistic and clunky with a good ladling of sentimental hogwash and this is no different, except in this case we are supposed to cheer as wildly for the LBGTQ slant as we would had BJK just hit an ace in the film we thought we were watching. So what is this "battle of the sexes" actually about? The celebrated tennis match which BJK won (a best of FIVE sets, all you serial complainers about women who only play best of 3) or the behind the scenes capitulation of her husband in favour of the aggressively pursuing female lover?Bobby Riggs was certainly a character but there was not enough focus on him, although Steve Carell did well with what little he had, turning him from an out and out idiot into a real person with doubts and regrets as well as compulsions. His performance was good while Stone (with all the screen time) seemed to be in some cheap made for TV movie, far too tall with a rotten wig.I guess I hated it, all things considered. Something that should have been compelling was reduced to preachy saccharine nonsense but as another reviewer accurately stated - the SJWs will eat it up.