Uncovering a seamy underbelly

Rating: 8/10 (10 January 2018)

An interesting thing happened to the audience (and to me) in the full theater that I was in when attending I, TONYA - the documentary-style behind-the-scenes look into the infamous "event" in 1994 between U.S. Figure Skaters Nancy Kerrigan and Tonya Harding.
The audience entered the theater expecting a rollicking good time - and at the beginning, laughs were a-plenty. But, about 10 minutes in, the mood began to change. I know I started getting uncomfortable laughing AT these players. I was beginning to get disturbed by them and as the movie unfolded, the raucous laughter turned into nervous laughter and then turned into somber silence, so - by the end - you did not know whether to laugh or cry at (with?) these characters/people.
A good deal of this feeling has to do with the work of the three leads in this film. As the titular Tonya Harding, Margot Robbie continues to show that she is an actress and not just a pretty face. Her Tonya has a strong will to succeed despite the odds but also, as a defense mechanism, has an uncanny way of twisting the truth to land on the phrase "this is not my fault". It is this denial that, at first, is funny, but later is sad. As shown in this film, Tonya brings on quite a bit of her problems on herself and then blames others for her actions/faults, causing a cascade of negative consequences.
Matching Robbie's delusion is Sebastian Stan as Robbies abusive husband Jeff Gillooly. Another actor that continues to grow and to show that he is more than just his Marvel SuperHero (Bucky Barnes, the Winter Soldier), Gillooly is a loser that sees his chance for winning in Harding's superb skating skills. The glimpses into this dysfunctional, abusive relationship is hard to watch, if you strip away the cartoonish nature of their characters and see the real dysfunction underneath.
But both of these actors/characters pale in comparison to Allison Janney's performance as Harding's Tiger Mom LaVona Golden. This is an unsympathetic, driven character that will help her daughter win by sheer force of will if she has to. Janney's performance is superb, unwavering and stern - and that is both a compliment and a complaint. She plays Golden with a driven one-note performance. There is no nuance here - you know what you're going to get, so you just sit and wait for the inevitable blow-up to happen. Janney will most certainly be nominated for an Academy Award for her performance - and she deserves to be - but I wished that there was a little more nuance (or variety) to this extremely watchable character.
But that's not the film that Director Craig Gillespie wanted to show. This is a "warts and all" portrayal of the people and events of 1994 and so his camerawork is just as unflinching as the character's perspective on what happened unfolds. Only Stan's Gillooly seems to be truly sorry for what had transpired, the rest still sit in the delusion that what they did was "right" or "wasn't my fault".
Which makes I, TONYA interesting - and a bit disturbing - to watch.
Letter Grade: B+
8 (out of 10) stars and you can take this to the Bank(ofMarquis)