A Movie about the nature of Truth and Perspective

Rating: 8/10 (27 February 2018)

I'll admit, before this movie I had no idea who Tonya Harding was (I was about 4 at the time). A biopic about a figure skater? Why would I care about that? It's probably some prissy inspirational sports movie. But then the trailer dropped and painted it more as a figure skating movie dressed as a Scorsese gangster pic. Suddenly my interest piqued.
For those unaware, I, Tonya follows the story of infamous American figure skater Tonya Harding. She came from a working class background and suffered an abusive mother (and later an abusive husband), but she found her calling at a young age and carried on, ultimately becoming the first American woman to successfully land a triple axel (a move far too complicated for me to fully understand) in high level competition. Unfortunately that was her peak, and she ended up in fourth at the '92 Winter Olympics. When the '94 Winter Olympics came along, she picked herself back up to get back in the game. Unfortunately for her, her ex-husband - desperate to help her out - decided to intimidate Nancy Kerrigan, Tonya's biggest competition both for qualifying and for medals, but it got out of hand and Tonya was implicated in a serious case of GBH, banned from skating for life, and has suffered an infamy ever since (eclipsed that year only by OJ Simpson himself).
Tonya's innocence, and the degree of her involvement in the plot against Nancy, has been a point of debate for the last two decades. At the time she was painted unequivocally as the villain, but as time has gone on, the truth has become mired in contradictory accounts from all involved, and I, Tonya uses this to it's advantage. It breaks the main narrative up with mock interviews with the characters (which were apparently based on real interviews), and fourth-wall breaking, complete with a disclaimer at the beginning that the story is told from contradictory information. While on the surface this is a Tonya Harding biopic, it takes the opportunity to tell a deeper story of truth and perspective. One person's truth is not the same as another's, which is a point beautifully made with the mock interviews by having them deliver the same lines at the same time in a different way with different meanings behind it.
As such, it paints a picture of characters enveloped in shades of grey. No-one is a flat-out antagonist (apart from maybe Tonya's mother), and no-one is a heroic protagonist. Even Tonya herself is painted in a light that is both sympathetic and accusatory (although I'll admit more on the sympathetic side; this is her biopic after all). The character work is absolutely solid, even down to the supporting characters. And on the note of culpability, the film never really takes a side on that either, instead offering a composite of both innocence and guilt.
Of course the shades of grey characters would not have come off all that well without some serious talent and hard work behind them. Fortunately I, Tonya is a powerhouse of performances. Margot Robbie is absolutely the star of her own film (she was an active producer as well). Her Tonya is both trashy and likeable in equal measure. She manages to embody her spine and her vulnerabilities really well and tap into both at a moments notice often in the same scenes. There's one scene in particular where she's just putting make-up on, and goes through so many emotions in less than a minute; from breaking down to gritted determination to fake happiness to sheer desperation. Allison Janney is the other big performer offering as close to an antagonist as the movie gets. LaVona is brutally cold and emotionless, and yet her one moment of reaching out oddly doesn't feel out of character at all. Sebastian Stan is also really good as Tonya's abusive husband, with a fury to fear and a pathetic desperation for love both. And then there's Paul Walter Hauser as Jeff's friend who does such a fantastic job of such a fundamentally stupid character, without going too far and making him a hammy one-trick performance. The added real-life footage at the end really brings his performance as Sean into a great light.
From a more technical standpoint, I, Tonya finds it's biggest pitfall though. There's a fair amount of CGI used here (for a drama) to put Margot Robbie's face on a figure skater, and it can be painfully obvious at times. That said the famous triple axel move was entirely CGI'd (as such a difficult move as it is, there aren't many around who can actually perform it, and those who can can't afford to waste an injury on a movie) and you wouldn't know, even when it's put through slow-motion. The music is also a little hit-and-miss. On one hand it uses some great tracks from Fleetwood Mac, Supertramp, and Siouxsie and the Banshees, but on the other hand they're all tracks that get used in movies a lot and by this point are starting to feel a little clichÃ©.
I enjoyed I, Tonya a fair amount. While it does absolutely paint Tonya more sympathetically than mid-90s media, it somehow feels closer to the truth of "the incident" than we'll likely ever get, and utilising the opportunity to make the movie a composite of contradictions result in some hugely entertaining and humourous interactions. The true-life footage and catch-ups at the end are really eye-opening as well, showing that the story that's at times too stupid to believe wasn't exaggerated in the areas you'd expect. I give I, Tonya a low 8/10.