A lot of effort went into this film, but it just falls flat. It's ultimately boring, not because it's too slow; it's just hard to care about this story.
Steve Carrell does a fine job, and without him, the film would have nothing going for it. Emma Stone, who plays the central role of Billie Jean King, just comes across as Emma Stone as usual...but she plays tennis!
The narrative of the film doesn't really have much nuance. It's sort of a typical "men are sexist; women are victims and they can do whatever a man can do" thing. It's too predictable. It's not predictable because many people already know what happened in the actual events. It's the narrative that's predictable. No deep characters. No interesting take on events. A lack of creativity in the actual filmmaking. Utterly forgettable.
The positives of the film are, as I mentioned, Steve Carell. His portrayal of Riggs isn't groundbreaking, but at least his acting is fun to watch. While the directing, editing, and score are bland, the cinematography is something noteworthy. It's a nice film to look at.
Steve Carrell does a fine job, and without him, the film would have nothing going for it. Emma Stone, who plays the central role of Billie Jean King, just comes across as Emma Stone as usual...but she plays tennis!
The narrative of the film doesn't really have much nuance. It's sort of a typical "men are sexist; women are victims and they can do whatever a man can do" thing. It's too predictable. It's not predictable because many people already know what happened in the actual events. It's the narrative that's predictable. No deep characters. No interesting take on events. A lack of creativity in the actual filmmaking. Utterly forgettable.
The positives of the film are, as I mentioned, Steve Carell. His portrayal of Riggs isn't groundbreaking, but at least his acting is fun to watch. While the directing, editing, and score are bland, the cinematography is something noteworthy. It's a nice film to look at.