'Battle of the Sexes' feels more inconsequential than its inspiration

When the credits rolled for Battle of the Sexes I learned that it was directed by Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Ferris, the same directing duo behind the dramedy crowd-pleaser Little Miss Sunshine, which also co-starred Steve Carrell, and I thought "yeah. that makes sense."

Not unlike that film, Battle of the Sexes is light and charming but it also lacking in a lot of depth or subtlety. It's an unassailably positive movie, that has some very nice moments in it -- especially during its rousing finale -- but also feels like a bit of a missed opportunity to say something more profound about institutionalized sexism. It's just a fun time at the movies, nothing more.

The film may be hamstrung to some extent by the fact that most viewers may know the conclusion of Billie Jean King's fateful match with Bobby Riggs in an exhibition game, and that Riggs' theatrical misogyny was not sincere and that stakes of the outcome may not have really been that high.

Still, their real-life face off was an important symbolic indicator if nothing else. And Billie Jean King, with her outspoken feminism and uncharacteristic 'look' certainly changed the way female athletes were treated and perceived.

What's less interesting -- to me at least -- is the ups and downs of her romantic life, which consume a lot of the screen time in Battle of the Sexes, and feels like filler. None of it is handled poorly -- although I couldn't shake the feeling that I was watching Emma Stone play dress up. It's not her fault entirely, she's really more of a movie star than a character actress. She's like out modern-day Sally Field, capable of being plucky, pushy and resourceful, and always likable.

The real life Billie Jean King and Bobby Riggs

Carrell is capable of being a little more interesting on screen. For instance, in a movie like Foxcatcher he was still funny but in a pitch black, terrifying sort of way. Here is doing the sort of sad, pathetic hustler type character he can do in his sleep. There are strains of Michael Scott in his performance as Riggs, and yet I missed his humor whenever he wasn't on screen.

Dayton and Farris set up the backstory of tension in the tennis world over women's salaries and prize money but did little to make it dramatically interesting since the 'bad guys' are so overtly sexist that they feel like cartoon straw men just waiting to be struck down, although the use of a vintage footage of a particularly obnoxious Howard Cosell is a stroke of genius.

And while I don't find the movie especially Oscar-worthy or groundbreaking, I was heartened to see so many young women and girls in the audience I saw the movie in. It's actually a little more risque than I expected, but it's certainly appropriate family fare and as hokey as it can be at times, I couldn't help but be swept up in the inspirational good cheer and excitement of the climatic battle.

This may not be the movie of the moment, the film that salves our collective post-election hurt -- especially those of us who believe in gender equality -- but as a history lesson, it'll do.