Renee (2011)
*** 1/2 (out of 4)
Even though ESPN's "30 for 30" series ended it hasn't stopped the company from delivering some hard hitting stories. This one here takes a look at Dr. Richard Raskin who in the 70s was a highly respected surgeon but after getting married and having a child he had a sex change and became Renee Richards. At first as Renee she wanted to stay out of the limelight but this all changed after she attempted to play professional tennis. I watch quite a bit of tennis and have done so for well over a decade but I had never heard this story so all of the events here were new to me. I guess everyone is going to have an opinion on whether or not it was fair for a former man to be playing in the women's league but in my own personal opinion, just from seeing the clips here, there's no question that Renee had an advantage. However, as the film also points out, she never became a superstar, never won a major title and in the end it really cost her a whole lot more than it ever got her. I think it's fair to say that the only thing she did win was being able to do what she wanted without having to bow down to anyone else. The documentary covers her life as a man, the eventual sex change, the controversy with playing tennis and it also shows where she is now. I will admit that at times I was shocked by the subject matter, at times disgusted but at the end of the film I couldn't help but feel some sympathy for Renee and everything she went through. Of course, there's no way to deny the fact that she hurt a lot of the people around here and this includes her son who was abused by kids at school over his "dad" being a woman and it's had a lasting impact on him to this day. Seeing the two brought together at the end was just downright depressing. Director Eric Drath does a very good job at showing all sides of this story. I thought he did a very good job at not only telling the story but being able to be down the middle and look at it from all directions. The likes of Billie Jean King, Mary Carillo, John McEnroe and Martina Navratilova are all interviewed and share their thoughts about the ordeal and how those in tennis reacted to it. RENEE contains a subject matter that I'm sure is going to turn off many viewers even today but I think fans of the sport should really give this documentary a shot.