There is very little that is more pleasant than heading into a film without much enthusiasm and walking out of it totally dazzled. This is the experience I, Tonya delivers.
Starring Margot Robbie, the Australian actress who also worked as a producer on the film, the movie follows the tabloid sensation and disgrace of the Olympic figure skater Tonya Harding. Harding has been the subject of much writing, and more speculation, but little of either of these has been done with any sort of truth, accuracy, or fairness. This remarkable film, by turns factual and funny, constantly surprising, and written, directed, and acted in a very unconventional manner, works to set the record straight, doing so with an adrenaline-rush that overwhelms.
Semi-Documentary and Smooth-Sailing Direction
The story of Harding is told in a documentary style, and Steven Rogers’ fresh screenplay joins the smooth direction of Craig Gillespie in featuring excerpts from interviews with the real Harding, her abusive ex Jeff Gillooly, her foul-mouthed mom, exasperated coach, and all the other influences on the crazy career path and cripplingly self-destructive lifestyle of the skater.
As we know, Harding was accused of being the brains behind the headline-hogging incident that ended up putting her rival Nancy Kerrigan out of the running and reducing the sport of ice-skating to a violent sideshow. The thrills and spills this film delivers rival that which the best NZD online casino can deliver!
Harding Had Nothing to Do with Crippling Kerrigan
This film states, along with everyone even vaguely connected to the incident that has undergone interviews about it, that Harding had absolutely nothing to do with what happened to Kerrigan.
Her husband came up with the idea to send her competitor threatening letters, to get her to blow the contest, and it was Shawn Eckhart, one of Gillooly’s friends, who carried out the attack that ended up with Kerrigan suffering a broken knee. It was one of the cruellest sports crimes ever, and it’s one that still send shockwaves through the ice skating community.
Harding Didn’t Disclose What She Knew
The reason Harding ended up in court and got banned from figure skating for the rest of her life was, in fact, her failure to disclose what she knew about what had happened.
The skater’s breakdown in front of the judge, along with her plea for a jail sentence instead if that would clear her name and allow her to continue to skate, is very moving, in large part thanks to Robbie’s multi-faceted success in rendering Harding human.
The Back-Story is What Brings Harding to Life
Craig Gillespie, of Lars and the Real Girl, covers the spectrum of 40 years in the life of Harding, displaying as he does so the reality that she never stood a chance against the overwhelming issues she was struggling with from Day One.
Deserted by her dad at a young age, and furiously forced into ice skating by a mean-spirited, heartless, crude mother, LaVona, Tonya was, by her own definition, a simple redneck doomed from the start.
Allison Janney’s scene-stealing performance of her mother brings home an ugly picture of the nastier aspects of the American dream, and Harding’s desperate escape attempt in marrying Gillooly, played by Sebastian Stan, forces her further down the road to nowhere.
Slapped around by a mom from hell and then beaten by her violent spouse, Harding learned early to keep her mouth shut, with the terrible results of this course of action being what the world now defines her by.
