An American tragedy from the dawn of the age of 'infotainment'

Rating: 9/10 (7 June 2018)

If you like to watch stupid lowlifes repeatedly shoot themselves in the foot then you will really like this film, which follows the infamous Tonya Harding's life from precocious child skater to the abrupt termination of her skating career in a court of law (with a quick jump to her brief stint as a novelty-boxer). The movie is an example of the 'unreliable narrator(s)' motif: opening with a disclaimer stating that it is "based on irony-free, wildly contradictory, totally true interviews" and allowing characters to break the 'fourth wall' to inform the audience that the other character is lying or the portrayed event didn't happen. This all makes for a fun film, as the makers can play up the most bizarre, ridiculous, or tragic versions of events without worrying about whether they are strictly true as long as someone said that they were. Margot Robbie does an excellent interpretation of the tough, foul-mouthed, quick-tempered, 'trashy' '80s chick who was also one of the best skaters in the world (although Robbie would tower over the diminutive Harding) and Allison Janney is outstanding as her abusive, coldly-pragmatic, chain-smoking mother. Sebastian Stan is great as husband Jeff Gillooly, who unwittingly (maybe...) set off the chain of events that led to the crack that was heard around the world, when gormless goon Shane Stant whacks America's beloved, prom-queen skater Nancy Kerrigan on the knee. I especially liked Paul Walter Hauser as Shawn Eckhardt, who was always my favorite dim-bulb in the Harding chandelier back when this was all news, not entertainment (although the line had begun to blur even then). Great fun, and if the line between fact and fiction is fuzzy, that just makes the movie all the more like the original 'news' story.