I first heard about Renee - and transsexuals in general - back in the '70s when she hit the tennis courts and fought to be allowed to play on the women's circuit. I didn't pay much attention to the tennis part of her story only the transgender part. I read her book 'Second Serve' some years later to learn more about her.
I found this documentary so interesting, but yet so sad too. Her son still has a lot of issues with her and what she did by abandoning him to go off and play women's tennis. Her sister says she still feels what Renee did by changing her gender was a mistake and she should have never done it. That's interesting I thought because I once read an article about Renee and the interviewer said that he felt it was the male, Richard, was the one raging to come out not the female, Renee. I assume this meant that she still talks and acts stereotypically like a male. So obviously it's not only her sister that feels that way. Pretty much the same thing that people are now saying about Caitlyn Jenner.
I must admit some of the things Renee said was rather bizarre or maybe you would call it delusional. At one point she mentioned how when she would return home to New York to visit her son when he was young she would wear a cheap wig and try to look male. Saying how ridiculous she thought she looked and people would notice this too and apparently stare because of her appearance. It's weird because she never says that about attempting to 'pass' as Renee even when it was stated by the reporter, Dick Carlson, who outed her that he, and a neighbor of his, saw Renee playing in a tennis match on T.V. and thought immediately she was a man wearing a tennis dress. He did a little investigative work and discovered what they already suspected being true. Renee seems to ignore all of this and continues to speak as if people would never guess that she's biologically a male despite what happened to her.
As someone else stated the ending was so very said. After visiting her son, Nicky, it's mentioned he got evicted from his apartment and he appears to be homeless but nothing else was ever said about that. I was curious enough that I looked him up on Facebook and he supposedly is now living in south Florida selling real estate (I believe he was doing that in New York too, so I'm not sure why he lost that job and was homeless other than the drug problems he has). I would highly recommend this doc for everyone despite how they feel about the subject. Renee's life was fascinating for sure.