Emerging as among the best films of the year, “I, Tonya” is an energetic, in-depth and entertainingly different take on the scandal that rocked Olympic figure-skating back in 1994. Many will remember the saga of Tonya Harding, implicated in the assault on her competitor Nancy Kerrigan, an event that has been examined in assorted venues. But it is unlikely you will have remembered it in the creative manner that batters us in this first-rate film written by Steven Rogers and directed by Craig Gillespie.
They have chosen to use a documentary-style form, with the various characters, expertly enacted, speaking for themselves as if they were the real people recalling their past and roles in the event. The result is a penetrating, sometimes even amusing delve into hardscrabble lives that reflect a cross-section of Americana.
Foremost, of course is Harding, sympathetically played by the excellent Margot Robbie as a toughened, swearing survivor, but also a victim, repeatedly battered by the man she marries, Jeff Gillooly, played as a self-serving, brutish manipulator by Sebastian Stan, and eventually discarded as her ex. Tonya is also consistently abused by her vituperative, controlling mother, given what surely deserves to be an award-considered performance by Allison Janney. (Robbie also gives an award-caliber performance.)
Tonya’s mother, as mean-spirited as she is depicted, is shown as responsible for driving Tonya into training from childhood that capitalizes on her unusual skating talent, the one positive thing Tonya has to hold onto. And what skating we see! Robbie does much of her own skating, but is abetted by digital magic, including showing Tonya’s specialty--the ultra-difficult triple axel. Watching the skating is one of the film’s pleasurable aspects. The film also dramatizes how Tonya must battle the view of judges who want skaters to personify elegance depicting what is supposed to glorify American family wholesomeness. Tonya, not mincing words, lets them know that she doesn’t come from such a family.
What of the attack on Kerrigan? The film depicts this as the bumbling result of Gillooly and his goofy cohorts. Supposedly the idea was to send Kerrigan threatening letters after Tonya received such a letter. But the situation gets out of hand when assigned thugs assault Tonya’s rival. Tonya is charged and as a result of a trial, is banned for life from the official figure skating world.
The film shows her downward spiral, including becoming a boxer. But she is also viewed as the spunky woman recounting her life from her point of view. Robbie does the job convincingly.
Director Gillespie and writer Rogers infuse the film with high-voltage energy. The story zips along in its documentary style with visual power and smart acting. There is a snappy undertone that at times can make one laugh, especially at the antics of the men shown as perpetrators. Whatever the real facts, once you see “I, Tonya,” this is the version likely to remain implanted in your mind. A Neon release. Reviewed December 8, 2017.