Review of I, Tonya (2017) by Tcurran2 — 13 Jan 2018

Margot Robbie gives the performance of her lifetime as the disgraced Olympic skater, Tonya Harding, in this unconventional biopic, told in a faux documentary manner. That stylistic choice allows the screenwriter, Steven Rogers, to have some fun with the events of the story.

Characters break the fourth wall and disagree with each other's version of events frequently. At one point in the film, Harding brandishes a shotgun and stares down the barrel of the camera, claiming that she never did anything of the sort in real life.

Just a moment later, she fires the weapon in the general direction of her estranged husband, Jeff Gillooly (Sebastian Stan). It is as riotously funny as it is disturbing. Harding's mother, Lavona Golden, is played with sardonic menace by Allison Janney, whose emotional and physical abuse is both played for laughs and for drama.

Tightly paced and visually interesting with its late 80s/early 90s aesthetic, the film especially shines during the actual skating scenes. Set to the tune of 80s pop music, Robbie, with the assistance of CGI, body doubles, and spectacular rotational camera movements, "I, Tonya" thrills as a conventional sports movie, although it is far from that in every narrative aspect.

The film could do with less editorializing, however. The film's final act assumes the audience needs help to grasp the thematic message of the film with its heavy handed final voice over. Robbie's courtroom speech near the conclusion is too on the nose as well, and being that it is accompanied with a slow dolly in on Robbie's face, it feels as if the filmmakers wish for her to start crying out for the Academy Award right then and there.

Just a pair of small complaints, which hardly derail the experience. If "The Post" was about the triumph of the media, then "I, Tonya" is a cautionary tale on what the media can do when they choose to create and fulfill their own narratives about a story.

Harding is reprimanded by skating judges several times throughout the film for failing to fit the image of a prim and proper lady. Harding's rough and tumble, unabashedly redneck image is rejected by the judges, as it was rejected by the public at large over 20 years ago.

Whether this film will change (or should change) that perception, time will tell. But speaking of time, at a neat two hours, you should carve that time out of your schedule to go see this film.