“I, Tonya” is part biopic, part mockumentary, but all quality. This film humanizes the media-created villainess Tonya Harding and reveals the life that shaped her polarizing personality. While Harding’s life is a long chain of sad and unfortunate moments, the film is more of a comedy than a drama with its tongue-in-cheek tone and over the top acting. One of the film’s most distinctive features is the incorporation of interviews that are re-enacted by the cast from interviews filmed by screenwriter Steven Rodgers. They are the crux of the film’s unique style and provide insight into what the characters were thinking during their series of unfortunate events. The interviews also reveal a great deal about Harding as she constantly makes excuses for her poor decisions. Amidst the comedy, the film makes bold statements about the cyclical nature of domestic abuse. It drives home the point that Tonya’s emotionally abusive mother caused her to later accept physical abuse in her marriage. Some of the most powerful moments in the film occur when Tonya breaks the fourth wall in a complete emotional disconnect from the moment because the abuse is so common (and even expected) in her life. This film is a great showcase for Margot Robbie and Allison Janney, each one delivering the greatest performance of her lifetime. Janney is pure evil and one of the most despicable villains that I have ever seen while Robbie manages to earn our sympathy in spite of her crass and selfish behavior. She embodies Tonya so perfectly (at age 15 and at age 25) that videos of the real Tonya won’t look right anymore. Their Oscar nominations for Actress/Supporting Actress are no surprise and Janney will likely win hers. By the end of the film, it’s easy to forget how incredible McKenna Grace was in her brief-but-emotional performance as young Tonya at the beginning, and Paul Walter Hauser as Shawn Eckhardt is hysterical. His character is so annoying but you can’t help but get giddy every time that he appears because he is so blissfully clueless. The characters are incredibly well-written, though I do have to take issue with one aspect of the script: The f-word. In fact, 100 of them. I understand that they are emphasizing the edginess of the characters but it went way beyond where it needed to be. Even real-life Tonya has mentioned that she has never sworn as much as the movie indicates. The writers could have made a great PG-13 film by portraying the rough-around-the-edge personalities of the characters through a means other than profanity. Outside of the great acting and storytelling, “I, Tonya” is a well-executed sports movie. The filming of the ice skating sequences is artistic, energetic, easy to follow, and convincing that Robbie actually landed a triple axel. Its Oscar nomination for Best Editing is well-deserved, though it’s hard to compete with “Dunkirk.” It is important to note that this film portrays Tonya’s ignorance to the Nancy Kerrigan incident but nobody knows how deeply she was actually involved. Her character even states that there is no such thing as truth and this is her version. “I, Tonya” captures an important moment in American pop culture and fleshes it out to a depth that we never knew. The story is perfectly cast with characters that you will love, hate, and love to hate. It is grossly underrepresented at the Oscars (especially with mediocre movies like “The Post” up for Best Picture) but its acting and cultural relevance will guarantee it a cult following forever.
[Pictured: This film is all about acting, but the editing of the ice skating sequences is out of this world]
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