This movie is just about King's lesbian relationship with her hairdresser, not tennis. In fact, the tennis stuff feels like an after thought.

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.

Emma Stone and Steve Carell tackle the tennis match of a generation, man vs. woman, against the backdrop of a splintering league and a cultural revolution. Carell has some fun with the part of Bobby Riggs, really going over the top with publicity stunts and sound bytes that fit his natural comic timing, while Stone positively disappears into her more serious role as the focused, professional Billie Jean King. I was hoping for more interaction between the two, as they play well together and the promotional tour seems like the most fruitful grounds for an entertaining film, but instead that's an afterthought to both parties' private, separate struggles.It's well-made, an excellent recreation of the era and the scene, but its message gets muddled in places, particularly in the amount of excuses it gives Riggs for his performance during the big match. A few conveniently-disappearing players in Billie Jean's storyline cause snags during the emotional payoff, too, with their surprisingly limited on-screen reactions echoing our own. A good subject, nicely cast and produced, not to mention appropriately timely, but it doesn't quite achieve everything it probably should have.

I could only make it thru 45 agonizing minutes of this "movie" ... bobbing for apples in a deep fryer woulda been more fun.