Review of I, Tonya (2017) by Alan W — 02 Mar 2018

The story of disgraced Olympic ice skater, Tonya Harding, could easily have been another conventional trashy TV movie but by adopting a faux-documentary style and undercutting more eye-rolling elements of the story with imaginative editing and fourth wall-breaking commentary, the film smartly turns these conflicting accounts to its advantage by highlighting the unreliability and subjectivity of its narrators, and turns it into a camp, funny and at times redemptive portrayal that creates a version of events that may or may not be true but certainly gets to the heart of 'The Incident' - the unbelievably inapt and infamous assault of Nancy Kerrigan, Harding's rival Olympic teammate, and the media frenzy afterwards.

The film traces it all back, rightly or wrongly, to the ice-skating community's prejudice against Harding's poorer/redneck upbringing (which ironically fuels her success) and the monster of a mother played wonderfully by Alison Janney (a detestable creature you can't help but want more screen time with), not to mention the domestic abuse and violence in her life.

Margot Robbie gives a confident and layered performance that dexterously shifts from comedic to dramatic and back, while Sebastian Stan and Paul Walter Hauser round off an incredible cast as her ex-husband and his deluded best friend, with their outrageous yet grounded performances which are as integral to the film as Janney's and Robbie's.

A well chosen soundtrack of pop songs of that era further complements the film, providing subtle (and not so subtle) commentary, and we end up with a breezy and easy film to enjoy, one that also provides a fascinating and thought-provoking insight into the lives of people who have long been dismissed as punchlines decades ago.