I, Tonya

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Margot Robbie is a terrific actress - eminently watchable. But she is bit too mature and large for the role of Tonya Harding. When she and Sebastian Stan as Jeff Gilooly take over from the child actors they look ludicrously too old. But then the whole movie is done in an over the top parody style so I guess it's forgivable. The scenes of abuse from Jeff Gilooly and her mother are quite shocking. Alison Janney does a great job as the mother from hell. Sebastian is a bit too clean cut looking - white trash don't look like him. All the abuse she suffered invokes a lot of sympathy for her overcoming such grinding poverty and sacrificing so much to get where she did. Just as in real life the events of the attack are not that clear cut. Whatever it is the story is one of the most interesting scandals of the sports world and worth watching.

The Tonya Harding-Nancy Kerrigan scandal of the 1994 Lillehammer Winter Olympics was the biggest ratings winner for the ladies short program. 24 years later, the world has changed and moved on. The figure skating world had other scandals but none topped the Harding-Kerrigan saga. Nancy was Olympic bronze medalist from 1992 and Tonya finished fourth place. Tonya would have probably been okay if she hadn't an abusive ex-husband, Jeff Gillooly in her life. She married him to escape her abusive mother (Allison Janney earned an Academy Award for her performance in this role). Tonya's life was one tragedy after another. She should have been removed from her mother's care as a young child. She was neglected and abused since she was a young child. Tonya's relationship with her mother, Lavona, was abusive and dysfunctional. Her father abandoned them and he was the fifth husband and her fourth child. She was a chain smoking waitress who worked hard to put Tonya through skating lessons. Tonya was a high school dropout with only figure skating on her mind until Jeff entered her life. Margot Robbie escapes into the role of Tonya Harding as a believable tragic figure skater. The film is about Tonya Harding's life not about Nancy Kerrigan. After the scandal, figure skaters earned a lot of money as a result by performing for television specials. If you have any prejudgment about this film, you need to see for yourself and decide for yourself about what really happened in 1994.

Comparisons come to mind when thinking of both Tonya Harding and this excellent film about her life and that notorious incident that led to her disgrace and banishment. The film is done almost as a homage to the faux documentary style that Gus Van Sant used in To Die For which was based on the Elizabeth Smart story. Both even had Australians as protagonists, Nicole Kidman for the Van Sant film and gloriously memorable Margot Robbie for I Tonya. I racked my brain trying to think of a sports figure like Tonya Harding and the closest I came up with was Shoeless Joe Jackson who came from a similar trailer park background that Harding did. He too listened to the worse angels of his nature and got himself banned for life in his sport. Jackson had far less education than Harding did, in fact he was almost illiterate. One thing about Jackson though his choice of life partner was a good one. By all accounts his choice of life mate was inspired as Katie Winn Jackson stuck loyally by him and was never a bad influence. That could not be said for Jeff Gillooly who had the same kind of trailer park background that Tonya did and who let being the husband of a celebrity just totally go to his head. Sebastian Stan whom I consider one of the best actors around today plays Gillooly with an explosive intensity. As the sports press built up this rivalry between Harding and Nancy Kerrigan, Gillooly tries to think of ways he can make himself indispensable to his wife. Thus was born the knee capping incident which gained both Kerrigan and Harding a celebrity status far beyond the world of women's figure skating. It was done by a man hired by a dim bulb friend of Gillooly's played by Paul Walker Houser. The scene with Houser being interviewed by the FBI is laughable and the expressions on the faces of the agents just says it all. The investigation went almost Watergate like up the ladder until the real target was reached by law enforcement and public opinion. It's such an incredibly plaintive scene as Harding begs the Figure Skating Association not to be banned. It's all she knows. The film is purposely vague as to how much Tonya did know. Best of all is Allison Janney and while the cast is great and many might get Oscar consideration Janney I think is a sure bet for a nomination as the monster of a mother that Robbie has. Still alive she denies the child abuse allegations. I kind of doubt it. Janney is unforgettable. Two scenes are also real keys to Harding's character and how it developed. One is early on when Harding berates the judges. She knows she outskated everyone, but they remind her that form and presentation count big for them. And later on she's told she's not the right image. Figure skating champions have to be pristine princesses as they have from Sonja Henie to today. She does make the effort to clean up her image. She almost does and a scene that will break your heart just before the fall is her leaving an arena and being asked by a little girl for an autograph. In that moment with dignity and class she shows herself the role model sports figure she was expected to be. Poignant all the more because the audience knows the fall is coming. More than would be figure skaters should see I Tonya. It's the sad story of an American tragedy.

... because I just remember everybody actually involved being so unlikable. This caustic true-story comedy-drama tells the story of Tonya Harding (Margot Robbie), the champion figure skater who came from a hardscrabble background, raised by an abusive mother (Allison Janney), but overcoming the odds to rise to the top of her sport, only to see it come crashing down thanks to the criminal activity of her dim-witted husband Jeff (Sebastian Stan). I'm old enough to recall the story well enough, and I didn't really care about it then, let alone now, and I've never been a fan of figure skating. However, I am once again pleasantly surprised with how good the resulting movie is. Robbie and Stan, two of the prettiest people in movies these days, do a good job of deglamorizing themselves. Robbie is fierce, a description I am loathe to use as it's overused, but it really fits here. Janney got an Oscar for Supporting Actress, and she's also "uglied up", and her character is completely reprehensible. In fact, most of the people are in this movie, and there's a lot of coarse language and violence, particularly spousal abuse both by and from Harding. The film doesn't really have a message, as it's more of a character study and a sad-but-true tale of shattered dreams. It's also very well acted, darkly funny, and occasionally moving.

As much as I knew about the ice-skater Tonya Harding was her association with the Nancy Kerrigan incident at the Winter Olympics and her being the only American woman to, up to that point, successfully pull off a triple salkot in competition. I know that she was disgraced as a result of her at-a-distance connection to the Kerrigan assault but that she'd come back into the public eye, competing recently in the American version of "Strictly Come Dancing". So what an eye-opener this low-budget feature was. It unflinchingly shows her upbringing, from a broken home, natch by a mother who clearly put the "hard" into Harding. Chain-smoking, foul-mouthed and bullying, she's the ice skating equivalent of the infamous "show-biz moms" you read about, hitting her daughter with everything but a little maternal love, deluding herself that her cruelty to her only child is self-sacrifice on her part designed to toughen up her little girl for the big bad world that's out there. Her father, you get the impression might just have made a difference, but you couldn't really blame him for baling out on his no-redeeming-features wife. There's dark comedy in these early scenes as mommie dearest Lavona ignores every social convention to promote her tomboy daughter's one given talent, her ice-skating ability but its typical of Tonya's luck that the man who comes into her life romantically turns out to be a jealous, possessive guy who behind his geeky moustache and weedy appearance threatens her, hits her and even shoots at her anytime she tries to break away from him. Not that Tonya is any shrinking violet, she gives as good as she gets in their numerous arguments and drop-down fights but unfortunately he's back in play just as she's readying herself for a crack at the Olympics where her biggest rival will be clean-cut, all-American Nancy Kerrigan, whose stylishly cut, virginal white skating costume contrasts vividly with Harding's old-fashioned, frills and bows homemade outfit. The "incident" itself, a cockeyed plan by hubby and his meathead bodyguard chum, sees the latter beat Kerrigan on the leg after a training session, becomes international news as the Winter Olympics of 1992 come around pitching the rivals head-to-head with a recovered Kerrigan finishing a close-up second but a psyched-out Harding come in a lowly eighth and that after a controversial re-skate when she dramatically stops her first routine as her boot lace comes undone. This movie is the women's ice-skating equivalent of "Raging Bull", a warts and all portrayal of a kid from the wrong side of the tracks striving to make something of herself with everything seemingly stacked against her. Her greatest moment is shown not as winning Skate America or coming second in the World Championships but the first time she nails that near impossible jump on the ice. From there it's downhill all the way as we see her struggle with her notoriety in the aftermath of all the publicity post-conviction, trying to scratch a living, even trying pro-boxing for a spell. The performances by the three leads, Margot Robbie as Harding, Allison Janney as the mother from hell and Sebastian Stan as her unhinged husband are terrific. The direction style is a clever mix of eye-on-the-wall documentary realism including recreated to-camera interviews with the main participants and fourth-wall-breaking asides together with convincing depictions of the ice-skating sequences. It all makes for a deliberately awkward but compulsive insight into Stateside trailer-trash living and also how hard it is for those on the inside to break free from this rough and tumble upbringing and make something of themselves. In this biopic, Tonya Harding tried as hard as she could but was literally born to lose, the little victories and happiness she achieved along the way, scant recompense for a reputation tarnished forever by events outwith her control.

"I, Tonya" is a biographic film telling the story of the notorious American figure skater Tonya Harding, brilliantly performed by the Australian actress and producer Margot Robbie. The dramatic and heartbreaking storyline is supported by magnificent screenplay by Steven Rogers that combines dark comedy and docudrama and fantastic music score. The truth behind this story only Tonya Harding knows. But the film is engaging and promotes Tonya Harding to viewers that do not know her sad biography. My vote is eight. Title (Brazil): "Eu, Tonya" ("I, Tonya")

While I found this movie somewhat entertaining, I got a strong sense of falsity as well. It's hard to describe but the most obvious thing was the nostalgia. Not sure what to do with the plot? Play a hit song every 5 minutes, that'll solve the problem. And then there was Tonya's redneck lifestyle. Who am I to say that her life wasn't as terrible as depicted but to me there was a lot that seemed a little over the top. Margot Robbie's performance in particular was all attitude all the time, swearing like a sailor. With the mockumentary style, I feel like they stylized certain elements which probably ended up bending the truth of what actually happened. There were a few times when the movie veered away from its' sarcastic style and for me those were the most engaging parts of the movie. The one that stands out is when the judge bans Tonya from figure skating. That was just heartbreaking. The movie changed some of the views I had about the Tonya Harding/Nancy Kerrigan incident. But overall I feel like the makers of this film had a specific kind of story they wanted to tell and weren't necessarily interested in authenticity. But that's movies for you.