Vanessa Redgrave thoroughly deserved her Emmy Award nomination as Outstanding Actress in this powerful true-life drama following the life of women's tennis pro Dr Renee Richards, who started out as sporty, all-American guy, Richard Radley. Although a transsexual, he married and had a son, before finally deciding that he had to go ahead with a sex change operation. In the dual role of Richard and Renee, Redgrave is extraordinarily good and the film is well worth seeing for her performance alone. The script handles the subject well on the whole, although the sequences depicting Richards' childhood and married life are rather superficial and the 'freak show' aspect of the story is not entirely avoided. But our sympathy is held as the film concentrates on what Renee has had to endure. Strong support comes from Alice Krige as Richard's first girlfriend, Kerrie Keane as his wife, Alan Feinstein as Renee's boyfriend and Martin Balsam as a psychiatrist.


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