It was the most bizarre event in sport’s history known as “The Incident.” ‘I, Tonya’ is a riveting biopic about the rise and fall of figure skater Tonya Harding. She made worldwide headlines when her estranged husband, Jeff Gillooly planned out the infamous leg-whacking attack on her rival Nancy Kerrigan before the 1994 U.S. Figure Skating Championships in Detroit. It became a huge media circus at the Lillehammer Olympics weeks later. Instead of being a goofy farce, screenwriter Steven Rogers and director Craig Gillespie have fashioned a whip-smart docudrama about a talented athlete’s fall from grace. It is Margot Robbie’s haunting performance in the lead role that makes ‘I, Tonya’ so absorbing to watch. She deserves all the accolades during award season.
The framework of the narrative is told through interviews and flashbacks. It’s heartbreaking to watch Tonya sitting at the kitchen table in her mid-forties taking a drag on a cigarette. She looks unkempt. Robbie perfectly captures the soul of Tonya. She is bad-tempered and quick to let the audience know that it’s not her fault. It’s stirring how she looks at the camera and says, “I never apologized for growing up poor or being a redneck.” When we meet her chain-smoking mother, LaVona (Allison Janney) with a parrot on her shoulder it’s easy to feel sorry for Tonya. Her mother constantly abused her while growing up. It also makes her journey as one of the best figure skaters in the world more compelling. To her credit, she was the first American woman to successfully execute a triple axel during a competition. Unfortunately, her athletic prowess only took her so far. The judges gave her low artistic scores for skating to ZZ Top music rather than Tchaikovsky. She also received low marks for her homemade costumes. She yells to a judge, “If you can come up with $5,000 for a costume then I won’t have to make one!”
When you see how she grew up, you really get the sense of her strength and toughness. Janney’s performance as Tonya’s mother is superb. She never shows any remorse and is convinced that her abusive behavior toward her daughter molded her into a champion. She is not portraying a caricature but rather a beaten down woman with many sorrowful layers. It’s a performance that deserves a best supporting nod by the Academy. It is no surprise that Tonya fell for the first guy that treated her nice. Jeff Gillooly (Sebastian Stan) came along at the right time for Tonya to move out of her mother’s house. Stan plays Gillooly with just the right balance of goofiness before he turns into an abusive husband. He’s not portrayed as a complete monster which explains why she goes back to him so many times after he hits her. Poor Tonya is trapped and her only escape from this abusive hell is to make it on the Olympic figure-skating team.
If Tonya’s story is not gripping enough, she looks at the camera and knows what the audience wants. She looks at us and knows what the public is eager to find out. She knows that we want to know what really transpired into the biggest scandal in figure skating. How responsible was she for the attack on her rival Nancy Kerrigan? The interviews with key players involved keep the story fast-paced like a Coen Brothers movie. Sadly Tonya was surrounded by bumbling idiots that sabotaged her chances of Olympic glory. Although she was not fully embraced by the figure skating elite, her athletic ability was undeniable. In contrast, Kerrigan achieved the grace of ice princess effortlessly. When the news got out that Tonya had something to do with the attack on Kerrigan, the damage was irreparable. This is where Tonya breaks the fourth wall again and blames the audience for abusing her in the media. It is a sobering moment in the film where she accuses us all for reveling in the tabloid fodder.
If you like dark comedy and superb performances across the board, ‘I, Tonya’ is riveting cinema and outrageously funny entertainment. Tonya was that one athlete that skated circles around her rivals but never attained the ranking of America’s sweetheart. Both Robbie and Janney deserve Oscar nods for their spectacular performances. ‘I, Tonya’ wins the gold and is a must-see.
