Axel folly

Rating: 8/10 (23 February 2018)

This review of I, Tonya is spoiler free
**** (4/5)
IN JANUARY 1994 - Tonya Harding famous for being the first American woman to complete the most difficult trick in Figure Skating this gained her a reputation as an adored sports-woman she literally had the world at her heels (or in this case her blades). However it wasn't long until she became infamous for an alleged attack on her rival Nancy Kerrigan. So more often than not she's remembered not only as having a dislikened attitude towards the pompous judges and sometimes against the audience - also she's remembered for the attack on her rival which not only got her banned from all future Olympic events but she was also forced to retire from skating in general. And, I, Tonya is more than capable of showing her life.

We start with Tonya as a child played by Gifted's Mckenna Grace already forced into the world of figure skating only a few years before by the rule of her overbearing mother LeVona Harding (Allison Janney), Grace pulls a terrific performance as the already tortured child who starts to gain a bad attitude especially towards her dance teacher (Julianne Nicholson) - behind that though is a young skater who's ambitions are high, competing at a high level she quickly becomes a world-renowned athlete. On the ice she's dedicated to winning a life that's better than her own; at home she's tortured by her mother who sees it as a way to get her to become a champion. Then we skip to her teenage years - now it's Margot Robbie to take the reins - on the verge of gaining world fame after competing in championships, she finds a chance to escape from her tortured life at home and get away from her mother when she meets Sebastian Stan's Jeff Gilooly, but even after that moment when she feels better for the escape life doesn't entirely get better for her - not totally away from the abuse - it seems that the ice is her true home, she's utterly relentless thanks to a few action scenes that are fast-paced, well-timed and beautifully shot. But that's only the bare essentials; you have to credit the performances too.

As Tonya, Robbie impresses, entirely capped in ugly wigs, completely stunning through visceral action scenes, complete with the attitude to be fair if you were to essentially rank her performance on a scale, it would very different from playing Leonardo DiCaprio's wife in Martin Scorsese's The Wolf of Wall Street, however her performance here is almost the same as the pure insanity of Harley Quinn - from her attitude on the ice, through the arguments with her husband, to the back-chilling Harley Quinn stare which is enough to make your skin tingle from head to toe. So despite her popularity in Hollywood she's not exactly a poor choice here.

Her performance is more than a match for her co-star Allison Janney, as a woman who's not only a keen supporter of her daughter (in her own way) she succeeds as the vicious woman, the result here is even scarily close to the real person, complete with the gold faux fur coat, the bird on her shoulder and the wire of an oxygen tank snaking through her room up to her nose after years of smoking. As a performer Janney has had that streak of cruelty in her roles, but she's also had a nice side to her - not entirely on show her but that's what makes her performance so good (definitely earning her first Golden Globe win).

There's only one criticism with I, Tonya, sadly the action scenes aren't as visceral as they should've been, granted they're fast paced but they fail to a noticeable rubbery CG of Robbie's face plastered over the face of a stunt double. Also the film sometimes gets distracted from winding road of Tonya's making it difficult to get into the underbelly of her turbulant life. Yet still the film is consistently gripping, darkly funny, and utterly relentless, ultimately convincing the audience her tale of trial by media, but Gillespie's directing through the dark winding road into sort of Goodfellas type territory, the stunning performances may perhaps ask you to reconsider. Changing her from the villain to the heroine, but really, what's so wrong with that?
VERDICT Robbie and Janney give gold medal winning performances through darkly hilarious storytelling, if you only watch one biopic this year - make it this one.