Just a head’s up:
from here on out, in addition to giving my usual numbered scores, I will also be
giving recommendations on how much I think the movie this worth seeing for. The
ranking will go (in order from highest to lowest) Worth the Price of Admission,
Buy It on Blu-Ray, Matinee, Rent It/Stream It, Skip It, Avoid It.
The Tonya Harding scandal may seem like a cliff-note of early
90’s popular culture, but there was a time when she was the most famous American
behind Bill Clinton. But like Bill Clinton, a good chunk of her fame was as a
punching bag, but unlike OJ Simpson, another star athlete whose career was
ruined by a huge crime, the world seems to have forgotten about her. For those unfamiliar,
the scandal came about when her main rival Nancy Kerrigan had her kneecap
broken, which was revealed to be a hit orchestrated by Tonya’s ex-husband.
Tonya’s involvement in the whole incident is a bit dubious, but nevertheless her
career was over, the media painted her as a cartoon villain, and she spent the
rest of the decade as a punchline for late night talk shows. I, Tonya doesn’t try to lay the blame on
her downfall on one particular thing, but rather several things, and is more
interested in trying to separate Tonya the character from Tonya the person.
Our story follows Tonya (Margot Robbie), a highly talented
figure skater who was the first American to successfully pull off a triple axel,
who was pushed to success by her incredibly abusive mother Lavona (Allison
Janney). She was able to muscle her way into the big leagues simply by being
better skater than the competition, but was continuously snubbed by judges for her
lack of gracefulness and poor background. When the 1994 Olympics roll around,
she turns to her physically abusive ex-husband Jeff (Sebastian Stan) for help
in an act of desperation after she receives a death threat. His original plan got
lost in translation with the men he hired, and they end up breaking Nancy Kerrigan’s
knee, leaving a huge paper trail behind.
Despite the end result of Harding becoming a pariah, one of
the more interesting things about that whole debacle was that there was no confirmation
about whether she actually ordered the hit, with participants giving wildly
contradictory takes on “the incident”, as it’s so ominously refers to. The film
frames this by having the narrative be told through interviews through various
characters, with the bulk of it coming from Tonya’s perspective. This structure
is reminiscent of some of Martin Scorsese’s work (The Wolf of Wall Street and
Goodfellas specifically), especially when the narration goes into little
digressions and fourth wall breaks. That’s not the only thing this movie cribs
from the Scorsese playbook. The kinetic nature of the camerawork and editing
and the well-timed jukebox needle drops also harken back to Goodfellas. A.A. Dowd of The AV Club
referred to this as “diet-Scorsese”, which is a harsh but not inaccurate description.
The actors are what truly sell it, though. Make no mistake,
this is Margot Robbie’s film. If Suicide Squad proved she can walk away from a
bomb unscathed, then I, Tonya proves
that she can disappear completely into a role. She shows that while Tonya wasn’t
the monster that the media painted her as, she was still a difficult person. She
takes beatings from both her mom and husband, and while it does take a number
on her self-esteem, it also hardens her and gives her the drive to show
everyone what she’s truly capable of. There are plenty of great examples of her
talent here, but my personal favorite scene that encapsulate everything is the
scene right before her Olympic performance where she sits in silence and tries
to hold it together while she applies her make-up. But whereas Margot Robbie
deserves a nomination for this, Allison Janney absolutely deserves an award for
her incendiary performance as Tonya’s mother. Like Sam Rockwell, Janney is a criminally
underrated character actor who I believe was never given her proper dues, and
here she slips seamlessly into the role of the coaching parent that most
lifetime athletes have nightmares about. Just when you think you can’t hate her
more, she finds a way to one-up your expectations, and while it’s debatable
about when the domino effect started, there’s no question about who set it off.
Anyone who walks in looking for a definitive answer as to
how much Tonya was in on the whole crime will probably be left disappointed. Sure,
the bulk is about a poorly conceived plan spiraling out of control, but that’s
just the hook. The film is largely sympathetic to her side of the story, and
isn’t so much interested in putting a bookend to that case as chronicling the legacy
of abuse, sexism and classism from multiple parties that coalesced into her
current reputation. Blame is definitely laid upon her mother, her husband, and
the Olympic committee for treating her unfairly, but it ultimately turns an
especially scathing eye at the media for dragging her name through the mud and
the public who laughed at her indignities for being complicit in her abuse. In
one particularly on-the-nose moment, she looks directly at the camera and
states with tired resignation, “you’re all my attackers”.
Bottom line, I, Tonya
is a riveting recount of a tale that you only thought you knew. While it is a
bit hampered by the direction, and the script does at time seem as sensationalist as the tabloids it condemns, the powerhouse performances make it well worth
it. If this isn’t a story you’re familiar with, this is a good introduction.
7/10, Matinee
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