Weird Presentation, But Fascinating Subject Matter

Rating: 8/10 (24 January 2018)

Because of the attack on figure skater Nancy Kerrigan leading up to the 1994 Winter Olympics, Tonya Harding is largely a household name even to the most casual of sporting fans. What was her role in the attack? Did she help plan it? These are questions that may never definitively have answers. What "I, Tonya" looks at, however, is the notion that Harding has perhaps been judged as much for her upbringing and "redneck" personality as anything else.
For a basic plot summary, this film is a bio (of sorts) of Harding (Margot Robbie). It really focuses on the relationship with her mother LaVona (Allison Janney) and on-again-off-again husband/boyfriend Jeff Gillooly (Sebastian Stan). Growing up without much formal education and pushed to focus on skating at a very young age, Tonya did not possess the princess-like grace of her competitors, much to her dismay as the scores would inevitably disappoint. Despite being perhaps the best technical skater of all time (landing the first triple axel in Olympic history), Tonya could not seem to truly grasp the status she thought she deserved. The film then delves into the infamous Kerrigan (Caitlin Carver) attack, and posits some theories on how exactly it all came together.
What one must remember about "I, Tonya" from the very beginning is that it is pieced together from interviews conducted with Harding herself and Gilooly. Harding tends to deflect blame to anyone else (mother, background, etc.), while Gilooly really puts much of the attack incident at the feet of his mysterious oddball friend Shawn (Paul Walter Hauser). This is pretty standard behavior (trying to as much blame others as take any sort of personal responsibility) for these types of situations.
What this approach does net, however, is some interesting things to think about regarding Tonya that are indeed interesting to ponder. Her mother is a true piece of work, she indeed was very naive due to a lack of education, and it is demonstrated time and time again how both the professional skating administration and the media used her to shape and cultivate their own narratives. While the film doesn't (and rightly so) make the leap of excusing the attack on Kerrigan because of this, it does make one perhaps at least look at Harding in a different light. Perhaps she was not the "monster" she was made out to be at the time.
Robbie's performance as Tonya is incredible, and almost single-handedly makes the weird presentation of the film work. Personally, I prefer a more direct approach when dealing with a documentary subject, but "I, Tonya" constantly breaks the fourth wall (talking directly to viewers) and often has a character narrating certain scenes from an outsider perspective even while the scene is transpiring in real time. It can be a bit jarring, to be sure, but as I said Robbie really mitigates that with her incredible Oscar-nominated performance.
Overall, I enjoyed "I, Tonya" much more than I probably ever thought I would do to how thought-provoking I found it. Will I ever completely sympathize with Ms. Harding? No. But what this film gave me was a look inside her life and how her tumultuous background may have colored both the events and relationships that eventually brought the skating portion of her life to an end.