Logan Sork Film Reviews
I, Tonya
The Tonya Harding scandal wasn’t something I was familiar with, since I was born well past the actual incident and interest with it. It was also relatively small in light of some other scandals during the late 90’s that my first introduction to it is with this film. With I, Tonya, the story is told with dark comedy, wildly contradictory stories and crazy characters, all of which should make the film feel jumbled. On the contrary however, it is the mixing of different genres and techniques that make this film such a unique experience. It perfectly captures the essence of the original story with aid from terrific performances, great direction and a fantastic screenplay, all of which make this film as big as the scandal it was based on.
I, Tonya is directed by Craig Gillespie and stars Margot Robbie as Tonya Harding, who was at one point the greatest female skater in the world. The film follows Tonya’s life from her upbringing as her competitive and abusive mother (Allison Janey) pushes her to become the best she can be. She travels further down the path of the victim as she meets her husband Jeff (Sebastian Stan), who also abuses her. From there on we follow her through the ups and downs of her controversial career, all culminating in the incident that made Harding the infamous figure she has been ever since.
From a storytelling perspective, the film is exactly what the original scandal was- Chaos. From the very opening title card, the film warns that the multiple perspectives in this are wildly contradictory and at some points downright ridiculous. The way the narrative plays out is so wild and unlikely, one would think that it would be a fictional story, when in fact it was (mostly) true. This brilliance is accomplished through the excellent screenplay by Steve Rogers, who punches up an already insane contradicting story with great dialogue and plenty of dark humor to give the story some extra edge. Yet amongst all of the chaos, Rogers manages to find the humanity in its larger than life story, showcasing how the people at the center of the story were impacted as a result. Because of this, the film is the perfect balance between dark comedy and grounded humanity.
The characters within this wild story are both entertaining and interesting, thanks largely to the writing and the excellent cast. Margot Robbie manages to find a whole range of emotions in the character of Tonya Harding. She has plenty of scenes where she is triumphant and hopeful, but she has just as many where she is angry and despaired, with Robbie capturing the different emotions beautifully. A performance that manages to take the mostly despised Harding and turn her into someone who is relatable and sympathetic. Allison Janey is simply fantastic as Tonya’s abusive mother, who finds a way to be funny, villainous and somehow understandable in her reasoning and philosophy. The rest of the cast is also excellent, with standouts including Sebastian Stan as Harding’s abusive husband and Paul Walter Hauser as the idiotic bodyguard, Shawn.
With such an insane story and characters, the direction of the film needed to be good in order to keep it from running off the rails. Thankfully, director Craig Gillespie is more than capable, confidently guiding the film along it’s course and even allowing for some detours along the way. The direction of the ice-skating competitions is perfect as Gillespie manages to film it so that Robbie and her double are indistinguishable from one another. There are even some nice techniques that Gillespie uses to make the film as unique as its story. The use of the tracking and gliding shots makes you feel like the camera is on ice skates, allowing for the content of the story to have a unique impact on the filmmaking itself. The use of recreated documentary footage also helps give the film a realistic look and feel, even if most of the footage is recreated.
In the end, I, Tonya is a wild, crazy and emotional look at one of the biggest sports scandals of the 90’s. Though at times it becomes almost too chaotic, it mostly maintains a fine balance between dark comedy and gripping drama. This is largely due to great writing, brilliant performances and great direction that makes this film a unique experience from start to finish.
9/10