Comedy?

Rating: Null/10 (20 February 2018)

Critics flatly question why this true story was adapted as a comedy. The answer though is right up front, at the start of the movie, with written introductions "based on irony-free, wildly contradictory and totally true interviews". Tongue in both cheeks (maybe not simultaneously). Perhaps it is the only sensible way the screenplay should be written.
Going towards the approaching Oscar, two lead actresses have each separately won a major award in a film with the protagonist's name as title "I, Tonya" and "Lady Bird". Both these awards are in a separate "comedy" category, which Oscar doesn't have. While both wins are fully deserved, it will be most unlikely that either of them can pull off an upset against Frances McDormand in Oscar, when they are all nominated in the same category.
The entire movie is framed within a set of "interviews" of a handful of characters, who are portrayed by actors. But this does not necessarily prove that there were no real interviews behind the scene with the real people. Nor does this prove that there were. Here's the thing. The "Rashomon factor" is very much palpable. What are said in the interviews are contradictory, particularly between the Tonya Haring's (Margot Robbie) and one-time husband Jeff Gillooly's (Sebastian Stan). The whole business of uncertainty reeks of quantum physics: depending on when you look, you can see side-splitting comedy, gut-wrenching violence or heart-rending tragedy.
The opening scenes show Tonya as a little girl at a skating rink, with foul-mouthed mother LaVona (Allison Janney) asking much-in-demand coach Diane Rawlinson (a very gentle Julianne Nicholson) to accept her daughter. The very opening exchange has Diane reminding LaVona that there is no smoking at the rink, drawing the flippant reply "I'll smoke quietly". In another quick character sketch of the mother, we see LaVona refusing to let Toyna leave the rink for a bathroom break (thereby wasting her hard-earned money), resulting in the little girl wetting herself. Totally unperturbed, LaVona said "skate wet". These little sketches say more about the mother than the graphic physical abuse she delivers at will at her daughter, even when she is no longer a little girl. The father is the polar opposite. He lovingly shows her how to shoot a rabbit in the eye so as not to ruin the meat. Unfortunately, father has to leave town to seek work, leaving her behind desperately yelling at the top of her voice "take me with you", to no avail.
These domestic scenes pretty well set up the background of Tonya's character, reinforced every time with a close-up showing the utmost intensity in her eyes at the start of her competitive performances, in which she achieves technical perfection. But athletic perfection is not enough, not even the "triple axel", the difficulty of which the movie takes pain to explain in detail. When confronted by Tonya in the parking lot, a judge flatly says that this is not all about skating. "You refuse to play along", he says meaning that Tonya fails to represent the image of "a wholesome American family". It is heartbreaking to hear Tonya's retort "I did not come from one".
This takes us to the midpoint of the movie, and "The Incident". I wouldn't go into the bizarre details which are all in public record. It was never conclusively decided if Tonya was the person truly responsible for the attack on her chief rival Nancy Kerrigan, initiated by Gillooly. The injury was not serious enough to affect Kerrigan's upcoming competitions. While Gillooly was sentenced to a moderate jail term, Tonya was banned from skating for life, something she would rather trade for a jail term. Skating WAS her life.
Tonya (I stayed away from her last name because in addition to the maiden sir name, she has three more, from three different husbands) has been depicted in sympathetic light in this film, and why not? Maybe the aforementioned opening cheeky introduction is intended to deflect any potential moral criticism. The single most touching scene I found is in the second half when the wicked witch of a mother breaks through a crowd of reporters and gets into Tonya's house, purportedly to support her, but then found with a tape recorded hidden in her coat pocket when Tonya clings to her for comfort. Such a heartbreaking moment when Tonya's hopeless longing for love all her life is torn open again like raw flesh in an old wound.
Margo Robbie's powerful performance is an interesting contrast to Saoirse Ronan's easy underplaying in "Lady Bird", different styles, both enough for their respective Best Lead Actress wins in Critics' Choice and Golden Globe. Both excellent, but then Frances McDormand in "Three Billboards outside Ebbing, Missouri" is something else! Allison Janney, on the other hand, has an almost clean swept of Best Supporting Actress, reminding me of Louise Fletcher's tearful thank-you speech in the 1976 Oscar for the same award "Thank you for hating me enough...", referring to her portrayal of an equally hateful character in "One flew over the cuckoo's nest".