Nudge, nudge, wink, wink, aren't we clever?

Rating: 1/10 (23 January 2018)

"I, Tonya" is a film based on an undeniably startling series of events in the ice skating and entertainment-gossip worlds of its era, but it ultimately comes off as a cruel stunt rather than a riveting dissection of all that went down and the societal implications of same, which it pretends to be. From the very first moments of the film the actors come off as actors commenting on, and impersonating, the real-life people they play rather than becoming them (with the usually-reliable Bobby Cannavale the worst offender of all), and that queasy feeling lasts throughout the film, even when it pretends to be sympathetic to their violent, lost, and confused world. Allison Janney, who I usually enjoy tremendously as an actor, summed up what I suspected about the actors' and creators' misguided, even clueless actions regarding the making of this film: On a talk show she condescendingly described the real Tonya Harding's behavior at the recent Golden Globes Awards show while seated at her table by implying Tonya had the clueless audacity to approach Oprah at a nearby table, when, in fact, you also get from the story that Tonya innocently thought Oprah would remember her from interviewing her back during the actual high-profile peak of the events' turmoil. That same condescension toward the (at the time) clueless real people involved showed through in the film itself as well, and it makes for uncomfortable viewing. Yes, it is true the real-life people depicted were then-clueless and confused, lost participants in life-destroying antics, but everyone involved in this present-day production should have realized their depiction of them is just as lost, clueless and confused.