or as the judges would say: 5.6(?)

Rating: 7/10 (23 December 2017)

I, Tonya is that frustrating good movie that should or could be better. Not much of any fault can be found on the actors, and while they're all quite good it's Robie and Janney's movie (sometimes Stan's too as he effectively shows he can do more outside of Bucky). And the direction is absolutely acceptable as far as how Craig Gillespie moves the camera and knows how to hold on a shot when he must - certainly at an absolutely crucial moment, without music and only Robie's face as she goes back and forth from tears to smiles in a mirror, is that moment - and getting this work with the actors had to take some deep work. No, everything problematic is the script and the music, and it's not so much what is there as what isn't and/or what could have been.
I didnt know much at all about the Harding/Kerrigan story outside of the general basics of the "Incident" as all of the characters in I, Tonya call it, but as much as I might get out of the repeated abuse that Tonya received as a daughter and a spouse may make her more sympathetic (the connection of her physical, as well as mental, abuse to that she received from the media in 94), but I wondered if they could have shown other things to make the story more complicated. Of course there's the bungled crime plot part of it - maybe this screenwriter is a big Coen fan along with Scorsese, and make no mistake this is down-the-line Diet Scorsese, which ill expound on in a moment - and yet Tonya had, from what the movie tells us, a connection *to Nancy Kerrigan as a friend.*
As the audience, what do we get to see with that? Tonya saying it one line and then we see them giggling on a bed. That's it. What is that bond that happened there? Why was Tonya friends with someone who was much more beloved and maybe/maybe not had the hard existence that Tonya had it? I have to think Robie when presented with the script likely responded to the potential in getting deeper into what is underneath when Tonya talks to us (4th wall is broken not only by fake documentary style but by characters doing it mid scene) and is beaten up and fights back and then accepts whats happened and then in reverse the joy of being on the ice. Did she actually respond to the plot mechanics? Because those... I dunno.
None of it is actively bad exactly. If you are looking for straight entertainment that goes for an invigorating "we're fuck ups but we're human beings look beyond the media depictions" take, that is there. But Gillespie or the producers or whomever missed out on what could have been more... *showing* us Harding's existence instead of flat *telling* us. That is where they try for Scorsese first, as far as showing us a group of unlike able but honestly depicted characters (and among them Tonya is by FAR the easiest to understand, everyone else is a pathetic creeper or abuser or, well, okay Janney is outstanding as always and I will take her total conviction over exact depth), but it falls flat because the narration isn't necessary for that purpose, it's not original enough to stand out. It is just... There. The second part is the music.
Just... Please, music supervisors, and I shall assume this had the same hack as Suicide Squad (the Robie connection coincidental. Maybe), listen to some of the deeper cuts on a CD or your iTunes, it is certainly possible to get something else than the same dozen 70s and 80s classic rock tracks to show us "yes, hard rocking 70s times!" A shame since I like most of the songs in and of themselves, and could see some value in a couple of them (the ZZ Top track which may/may not have been there when Tonya was skating early on is a good example and a deeper track that fits the scene). But like the script the songs spell things out to nearly comic degrees; Janney's mother has 4 year old Tonya on the ice, how about "Devil Woman"? Theres another drive away "for good" from a mega blowout fight between Robie and Stan? How about "Goodbye Stranger" by Supertramp? It eventually is overkill too, but the bigger problem is that it accents the scenes and doesnt do scenes dramatic service. It tells us how to feel before we can get a handle or trust what's already there.
I know this sounds like a dumping on on all of I, Tonya, but that may be in part an expectations thing. I thought if it was going to Goodfellas or maybe Wolf of Wall st lengths it might take a satirical view on this uncanny sports saga - the trailer leads one on that direction too, a great trailer I should add - but it is more like an inverted Raging Bull. What if we got the woman's take on being in seemingly endless cycles of abuse, and you cant take what happens off the ice on it either (except maybe to uh prove the abusers wrong?) and yet it is .... not that kind of story either because we do get a lot more of an indication of where the abuse comes from. It's an experience where I absolutely adore everything the actors are doing, I could go on and on about how much Robie owns even (especially even) the smaller scenes that need to be quieter like with Julianne Nicholson (unrecognizable as always), and at the same time they had richer material and a less hackneyed attitude to certain parts of the style.
Oh, and last thing that may be a nitpick, but... It is really distracting at times how obvious it isn't Robie's face on the body during some of the skating moves. Just get a good double people! Dont make me get the club on you VFX slackers!