Plot
In 1976, Renée Richards is on the tennis court as a professional tennis player. The film flashes back to 1964, when Renée Richards is an eye surgeon named Richard Radley (both roles played by Redgrave). Radley has a successful career and a fiancée, but secretly cross-dresses at night. Unable to speak with his mother Sadie (Louise Fletcher), who is a psychiatrist, Radley consults his own psychiatrist, Dr. Beck (Martin Balsam), who advises him to grow a beard. This strategy works temporarily until Radley is drafted into the Navy, which does not allow beards. Following his discharge and a failed marriage, Radley undergoes gender reassignment surgery and becomes Renée. Renée relocates to California, resumes her career as a surgeon and begins dating. After playing in a local tennis tournament in La Jolla, Renée is outed as transgender by a television reporter. In the ensuing controversy, Renée takes the United States Tennis Association to court, where she secures her right to play professional tournament tennis as a woman without being subjected to chromosome testing.Cast
* Vanessa Redgrave as Richard Radley/ Renée Richards ** Whit Hertford as Young Richard Radley * Martin Balsam as Dr. Beck * William Russ as Josh * Alice Krige as Gwen * Kerrie Keane as Meriam * Richard Venture as Dr. David Radley * Reni Santoni as Dr. Roberto Granato * Louise Fletcher as Dr. Sadie M. Bishop *Critical reception
Critic John J. O'Connor of '' The New York Times'' praised Redgrave's performance. Although noting that from a physical standpoint Redgrave is not very believable, O'Connor calls her performance "astonishingly convincing". While finding the script wanting for its tendency to reduce complexities to cliches, O'Connor also found that ''Second Serve'' "does manage, despite oversimplifications and evasions, to stick to the point. But it is the extraordinary Redgrave performance that slams the message home." ''Redgrave, tall and vulnerable, athletic and bewildered, fearful and loving competitive and lonely, manages to ''transsex'' both ways. She embodies, with the fine bones of that face and the twitching of her various limbs, every internal contradiction of the polymorphously perverse."''Second Serve'' was not universally praised by critics, receiving negative reviews from such outlets as the '' Chicago Sun-Times''. Redgrave was nominated for an
Notes
External links
* {{Anthony Page 1986 television films 1986 films 1980s biographical films 1986 LGBT-related films American LGBT-related television films American biographical films Biographical films about sportspeople Films about trans women 1983 non-fiction books Transgender literature Tennis films Films set in 1964 Films set in 1976 CBS network films Films directed by Anthony Page Films scored by Brad Fiedel Cultural depictions of tennis players Cultural depictions of transgender people Cultural depictions of American women Biographical films about LGBT people 1980s American films