A MASTERPIECE THAT INFLUENCED THE WORLD BEYOND FIGURE SKATING!

Rating: 10/10 (30 March 2018)

Trust me because I'm a sports freak. I can determine which sports films are worth watching for the fans, also for the audience who don't care about sports. I'm positively confident to say that this movie is for everyone.
First of all, I want to recognize the BIG three who led this film its maximum potential and nearly won the best picture Oscar award.
Craig Gillespie, the director, was single-minded in his determination to pursue his passion for being a successful filmmaker. He dared himself to abandon everything in Sydney and moved to New York City at the age of nineteen. He went zig-zag to direct a commercial to the next commercial for fifteen years until he reached an upper level to lead a high budget film. The majority of his works are considered to be above average, such as Million Dollar Arm and Lars and the Real Girl. Nonetheless, a work of his hasn't touched down to the land of disappointment.
Margot Robbie who continues to blossom like crazy since she won the Harley Quinn role. This film led to establishing her in the category among dominant actresses, especially after she proved that she could portray multi-dimensional characters of different genres.
Thirdly, a remarkable performance by Allison Janney, who's must be known as one of the best-supporting actresses, had nearly stolen the whole attention from Margot with her limited time in the film. Likewise, she won the best-supporting-actress Oscar award.
It's a biographical film that follows the life of Tonya Harding, a figure skater, who was infamous for involving the event of an attack on her rival, Nancy Kerrigan, in 1994. Her abusive mother solely guided Tonya's childhood life by determining her to dedicate her entire life to become the best figure skater. However, the most significant side effect of raising solely on skating was the lack of education. Also, the implication the Bandura's Social Learning Theory where she grew up with abusive mother as her only model. As expected, she's attracted by people with low self-esteem and low education, and that led her to the unforgettable event in 1994.
A critical element that sets this film apart from the others is the blend in the documentary interview style with people who involved the incident. It made it appear as if they explained to you about the whole story.
I want to share a short story that implied to the reason for portraying this critical element. My dad described me about this particular event since I was too young to recall that time. Before Tonya, the majority of people didn't care about figure skating. After Tonya and the incident, people in the world went crazy. The competition in Winter Olympics received the most viewers in the history and Tonya received plenty of hatreds. (On the other side, the Olympics chairpersons should thank Tonya for receiving a lot of attention, mainly when it was the first Winter Olympics.)
Moreover, her rival Nancy Kerrigan had met all the criteria for winning the medal before her performance on the ice, such as her beauty and well-educated background, whereas Tonya struck with a label of "white trash." (Unfortunately, the aspects of criteria would be attentive lowly on beauty and such as that today.)
However, back to the point, Craig Gillespie included this critical element-blending in the documentary interview style- to let Tonya and others share the whole story to provide the full perspective on that particular incident and the rest for us to judge.
According to my viewpoint, Tonya was in shallow socioeconomic class as the majority of people in America. Those people who surrounded Tonya were likely to vote for Trump to be our president. She barely had a model who supported her. She nurtured with the attachment style of being afraid and clingy. Therefore, she was accustomed to having people controlling her. She thought it was defined the meaning of love. So, when she found out about her ex-partner was involved the incident with Nancy, she was afraid to share this information because of her lack of knowledge of the fact of the laws and the effect of her attachment style. In result of her nurtured by nature, she was banned from figure skating competition for not spitting out about her ex-partner earlier and received the worst punishment.
This film demonstrated the powerful reflection of the life circumstances. High socioeconomic status, beauty, education, native English speaker, etc. will always have the advantages. Whether we like it or not, the judging system and the laws justified the privilege for high socioeconomic statuses, even when it was without their intention. Tonya, for example, the way she was raised. It influenced the chosen of her action to keep private about her ex-partner extended longer than the statement of law itself. Therefore, it took nearly everything away from her.
Bottomline, I love Tonya for who she is. I love how she went through the obstacles like the mountains, Everest. The most amazing of her doing was her ability to stay at the competitive level for an Olympics medal after all the chaos, including the betrayal of her mother. However, nothing is above the laws. I have to accept the fact that she earned the punishment, but I'm glad that this masterpiece was created for her. She beyond deserved the meaningful recognition and the second thought among people who judged her.
Overall, as I said, it's a masterpiece that's well-deserved to be nominated for the Best Picture Oscar award for the reasons of providing multi-perspectives on socioeconomics, psychology (Attachment and Stages of Theories), and sports!