Brilliant Actors Transform A Smug, Shallow, Insulting Script

Rating: 7/10 (23 February 2018)

I heard so much hype about this movie that I was a little disappointed by the end result. There's no question that Margot Robbie is a stunning success as Tonya Harding. Margot captures all sides of Tonya, making her brave, tragic, funny, seductive, innocent, deeply flawed and yet amazingly strong all at the same time. Sebastian Stan is almost as brilliant as Tonya's husband Jeff, a dim bulb who genuinely loves his wife but has to idea how to prove his loyalty except through stupid schemes and shiftless behavior. Even Paul Hauser is remarkably effective as Sean Eckhardt, the fat and brutal yet strangely childlike simpleton who unwittingly destroys both Jeff and Tonya.
Allison Janney as Tonya's mom, Lavona . . . well, here's where I deviate from the conventional wisdom. To me, Allison's performance rang hollow all the way through. There was no nuance, no texture. Just meanness and cruelty without any room for any kind of insight or humanity. It wasn't like watching Gloria Swanson play Norma Desmond in SUNSET BOULEVARD. Gloria Swanson never let you forget that this woman really was a star once, and that her love for the fans ("those wonderful people out there in the dark") the movies and for acting was sincere. None of that cancelled out Norma Desmond's murderous hate and her manipulation . . . but it made her human, and therefore believable. That never happened with this character.
But it's not really Allison Janney's fault. The problem with this movie is that though the acting is brilliant, the writing and direction are geared more towards lazy cheap shots than real insight. How many times can you tell us that rednecks are stupid and mean? Do we really need to see a Ronald Reagan poster in the fat boy's living room? Ask yourself another question. If this movie were about an Asian mother trying to make her daughter into a doctor, would anyone describe the character as a monster?
Another disappointment was the crude soundtrack, overstuffed with classic Seventies rock. I love that music. I grew up with it. But the film makers don't use it effectively. You get the impression that to them the music itself is a joke. Now and then they hit the right note, match the song to the mood in just the right way. ("Shooting Star" by Bad Company tells Tonya's story better than the movie.) But much of the time it just feels gimmicky, and fake. ("Those rednecks and their dumb music . . . why can't they listen to the Beatles and Bob Dylan like civilized people?")
A lot of the class hatred in this movie feels forced and calculated, meant to please today's elites. The idea is something like, Tonya's type are trash, they're the ones who voted for Trump. Let's laugh at how stupid they are! But that sort of reasoning rarely makes things better. "They" voted for Trump. "They" killed Christ. "They" stabbed us in the back at Versailles. That's the spirit that drives this movie, and even though the actors are sensational, they can't quite overcome the meanness of the script.