Summary
A biopic blends the bizarre truth with mockumentary to deliver a piece of not-too-distant sports history. It’s ultimately a showcase for the stars, even if its form doesn’t always stick the landing.
“I was loved for a minute,” Tonya Harding (Margot Robbie) tells us in a to-camera confessional. “Then I was hated. Then I was just a punchline.” Australian-born director Craig Gillespie turns this statement into a three-act structure, bringing us a true rags-to-rags story of one of the biggest sports-related controversies outside of a Ford Bronco.
It’s one of those stories that we all have at least a vague awareness of. Thirty years ago it was impossible to avoid. Steven Rogers’ script is framed within a series of mockumentary-style ‘interviews’ with the key players in the Harding/Nancy Kerrigan saga. Beginning with Harding starting her ice skating training at the age of 3, it flashes back-and-forth from the present day to formative moments in her life.
What is perhaps most surprising about I, TONYA is just how bizarre the peripheral players were in this saga. Harding’s lover and later husband Jeff Gillooly (Sebastian Stan) is a real piece of work, an a redneck villain of the sleaziest order. His ‘sidekick’ (Paul Walter Hauser), who also acted as Harding’s bodyguard, believes that he is an international spy. He is not.
Yet it’s also a film that’s stylistically inconsistent. The mockumentary format regularly breaks the fourth wall to remind us about the subjectivity of the ‘truth.’ Constant quips about “this never happened” allow the filmmakers to double-down on playing fast and loose with the timelines. The first time the fourth wall is broken is during a dramatic sequence of domestic violence. It’s one of many mirror instances styled in this form. At best it uses spousal aggression as an easy narrative device, a lightweight Romeo and Juliet, and at worst it’s a source of black comedy.
Nevertheless, it’s an amazing showcase for the leads. While Robbie isn’t always convincing in a role that spans Hardings teens through to her middle age, there are some completely transformative moments that are undoubtedly worthy of award consideration. Yet it’s Allison Janney as Harding’s tough-as-nails mother. If ever her Draconian attitude or unique fashion is doubted, the footage of the real LaVona Fay Golden under the credits is uncanny.
If nothing else, I, TONYA is a solid reminder of just how talented Harding was as an ice-skater. As we are regularly reminded, she did something impressive with a triple axel jump, even though many of the skating scenes are burdened with artificial slow-mo and look digitally enhanced. It’s just a shame that there’s not much beyond this that we couldn’t gather from the Wikipedia page on Harding’s life and trials.
