The fact that I forgot to write a review of this film probably tells you that it is not a four-star film(thanks, Lynn, for the nudge).But I do think it is very good, and it mattered a lot to me personally.

Everyone knows the story of the Bobby Riggs/Billy Jean King tennis match and that she beat the living daylights out of him. I almost didn't see the film because what can it tell me that I don't already know? A lot, actually.

The setting is 1973, the beginnings of the women's movement of that period, and right around the time that I started college at the age of 40. So much of what was going on in the film, especially the Virginia Slims backing of Billy Jean and her team and also BJK's struggle to get better pay for women tennis players, was really exhilarating because the changes were woven into my own life.

But what I did not epect was the delving into the personal lives of BR and BJK, their spouses and lovers, their personal struggles. Steve Carrell's Bobby Riggs is so over the top but as I recall, Bobby Riggs really was nearly nutso with all his antics, costumes, claims, promises, etc. But I hadn't known he had a serious gambling problem and all that kept him able to stay afloat was a very wealthy wife. Carrell chews enough scenery to nearly turn his role into a farce, but grounds it enough to make Riggs's insecurities plain.

That's an interesting relationship but more complicated was BJK's marriage to Larry King. I knew that she is a lesbian, I knew she had been married to a man, but I didn't know the details. Emma Stone brings Billy Jean's growing awareness of her homosexuality into view, with all the second-guessing, indecision, fear for her career that would have marked such a journey in 1973. Stone's face registers a wide-ranging emotional register--she is just so good. Her gradual understanding of her sexual desires is energizing to watch unfold. You want to cheer for her.

Oh, and there's a tennis match in the film, too. Pretty anti-climactic when it finally arrives.

So while the film is not great, I liked it a lot more than I thought I would.