It's Not My Fault

Rating: 7/10 (15 April 2018)

"It wasn't my fault" is a line we hear over and over in this movie - it should probably be a secondary title, as the movie seems to serve as a 'sort of' apology for what they call The Incident, the 'whacking' of Nancy Kerrigan's knees. Everyone is aware of that incident - it was, for a while in the 90s the lead story in the news, capturing the tabloid interests of America by combining a forum for competition in skating, social class, and good looks. Tonya Harding captured more than her fifteen minutes of fame.
The movie does not definitively answer the question of what, exactly, Tonya's role was in the trailer-mafia story. Telling the tale from the mouth's of several of the participants, I don't think we yet have the final truth about whether Ms. Harding plotted the 'whacking' in advance. If the movie truly represents her confession about the matter, then she was at least knowledgeable after-the-fact and participated even dim-wittedly in the cover-up. For that she was punished greatly, being banned from the sport that had defined her life for nearly twenty years.
If we are to believe Tonya, though, 'none of it was her fault'. No, instead it was the judges who could never get past her background; her coach who never gave enough; her husband, who she loved despite the marital violence; his friends whose egos exaggerated their mildly nefarious plot; and, especially, her Mother who, despite giving her as much as she was able, never really gave her any support at all. Whatever happened was always TO her, not BECAUSE of her.
And so the movie leaves you with a very ambivalent set of feelings. You'd like to at least understand Tonya's role in The Incident, and perhaps leave with a little sympathy for her fate. But you can't - there is no acceptance from her here, and no humility. Its all about how awful her life was and how, whatever happened, it has its explanations outside of her.
The movie comes to us from the fertile imaginations of writer Steven Rogers and director Craig Gillespie. Rogers wrote StepMom, a movie from a couple decades ago starring Susan Sarandon and Julia Roberts about a dying wife and mom who selects her replacement. I remember the story as being effective and intriguing, although it was not a huge success. Gillespie is best known for directing Lars and the Real Girl which had some genuinely weird and funny moments which he succeeds in bringing to I, Tonya.
One device they bring to this movie that succeeds wonderfully is telling the story in two ways - one in conventional movie scenes, and the other as a series of interviews with each of the characters, separately, sitting in chairs and recounting the events as they remember them. Then, as an added effect, at certain points in the movie the characters break the fourth wall by speaking directly to the audience through the camera. Although this stunt is a dangerous one because it often fails, in this case it seems to add credibility as well as a certain sense of humor to an already twisted story-line.
The movie received a well deserved Oscar nod for film editing. Tatiana Riegel also worked with Gillespie on the Lars and the Real Girl project. In I, Tonya, she succeeds in putting together a tight movie with no extra fat - every scene adds to the film and helps tell the story.
Margot Robbie, as Tonya, does a credible job, and I can understand the nomination for leading actress as the Harding character was not an easy one to play. But I couldn't help but think, as I watched the movie, that she was miscast. Simply put, Ms. Robbie is too attractive to play the Tonya role. Robbie is five inches taller than Harding and doesn't have nearly the muscular build that gave Harding a huge part of her image as a redneck female (Harding was often referred to as Thunder Thighs and she could bench press more than her own weight). Robbie shines in roles like Harley Quinn in Suicide Squad, or Jane in Legend of Tarzan, or Naomie in Wolf of Wall Street, or even as herself in The Big Short - yes, she works best in more glamorous roles. She gets an A for effort here, but it's simply the wrong actress for the part.
Allison Janney, on the otherhand, is damn near perfect as Tonya's mother, Lavona. As she chain smokes and swears through the entire first half of the movie, we get a real clear insight into how Tonya turns out the way she did. That Lavona is cold and hard is real enough, but she also gave as much of herself to Tonya as she could afford to give without losing her own identity. Her methods were often crude, but her motives seemed, to me, honest. Janney succeeded in playing a very complex character without dominating her scenes. She was, in fact, a Mother.
I, Tonya is not a perfect movie. At times it doesn't seem to know whether it is a tragedy or a comedy - and works at being both. When it presents violence, which is frequent and fundamental to the story, it sometimes does so with intended comic effect. That can become disorienting to the viewer. Combine that with the almost documentary tone, and the frequent audience asides, and you have a work that is both interesting and challenging to watch.