Two Xmas Thumbs Up

Unmatched:

This is a movie about how the only true soulmate someone who's best in the world at something can have is someone who is better...Instead, Lax and Winters frequently seem intent on turning the film into the chick-lit version of a sports documentary. There's nothing wrong with chick-lit, and it has its place, but when you're making a movie about two steely competitors who spent over a decade staring each other down, despite being good friends, you don't mute the impact with frequent dips into the Natalie Merchant back catalog. To go back to that theoretical Johnson vs. Bird film, is there any way that that piece would frequently cut to the two skipping stones on the surface of a placid lake while Dave Matthews Band's "Crash Into Me" played on the soundtrack? Probably not.

I liked it, and it really does parallel the Bird/Magic story, including the public's not-always-right assumptions about their personalities. And Martina comes off, in my eyes, better than Evert, who doesn't stop talking throughout the entire thing, patting herself on the back while Navritilova looks at her, probably thinking "did...did you ever beat me?"

Also, and this goes back 25 years, am I the only dude in the world who was more into Martina's looks than Evert? She never did anything for me, and Martina always had some nice toothy moments. Lesbianism notwithstanding, I would've totally picked her over Evert.