"There is obviously a lot of talk this year about the importance of stories told by women, so the film feels timely as well as fun."
I’m not sure if I, Tonya was deliberately timed to coincide with the Winter Olympics, but either way figure skating is having a moment. It’s probably the campest of sports, largely thanks to all the sequins, so I’m happy. Much like boxing and ballet, figure skating seems ripe for film dramatization thanks to it having so much individual drama, so it’s surprising there haven’t been more films on the sport up till now (Joan Crawford made one in 1939 and it was really, really terrible).
Margot Robbie plays Tonya Harding, the Olympic skater who was notoriously disgraced in 1991 after an assault on her rival Nancy Kerrigan. Her husband Jeff Gillooly (played by Sebastian Stan) hired the attacker to break Kerrigan’s leg, taking her out of the national championship. After an intense media frenzy Harding pleaded guilty to hindering the prosecution and was never allowed to skate competitively again. She’s had something of a vindication with the release of this film, though there’s still a huge ambiguity over what actually happened and how much she knew. I, Tonya plays with this cleverly, framing the story in a mockumentary style with a Rashomon-like repetition of events from the differing perspectives of the main characters.
Loverboy Magazine attended a London press conference last Friday with the cast and stars, at which writer Steven Rogers said, “They just remembered everything completely different…and that’s what gave me the idea to put everybody’s version up there and let the audience decide.” The playful style adds real humour to what could otherwise have been a much darker film, given the domestic abuse back-story and depressing finale (though admittedly some have criticised the light-hearted handling of a serious issue).
The real highlight is clearly Allison Janney as Tonya’s monstrous and abusive mother – a role that has landed her a BAFTA win and her first Oscar nomination. Her character is so overpowering that we perversely start to miss her as the story moves away from Tonya’s relationship with her mother and onto “the incident” with Nancy Kerrigan. Margot Robbie is equally brilliant, also landing her first Oscar nomination for a film she’s produced as well as starred in. There is obviously a lot of talk this year about the importance of stories told by women, so the film feels timely as well as fun. At the press conference she mentioned that she hopes to direct in future, and it’ll be exciting to see what she does next after the success of I, Tonya.
After seeing this film I found myself watching Tonya Harding’s stunning performances on YouTube (she was the first American to successfully perform the demanding triple axel jump in competition). One unavoidable weakness of the film is that the CGI skate double can’t possibly compete with the real thing. But I was impressed by the visual accuracy of the costumes and historical setting. I, Tonya is great entertainment, possibly my favourite film of the year so far.
I, Tonya is in UK cinemas February 23rd.
Reviewed by Matt Harris.
Reviewed by Matt Harris.
