Gripping biographical black comedy gave me chills

Rating: 9/10 (16 December 2017)

Over time, I have grown weary of the biopic genre. It tends to yield a lot of films that are by-the-numbers and lack an edge. Enter this film that proves the exception, a fiery account of the renowned U.S. figure skating champion Tonya Harding, whose husband and friends got involved in her career in the most sinister way possible and seriously injured a figure-skating competitor of Tonya, Nancy Kerrigan who, as it turned out was equally impressive on ice.
The film starts out at the beginning of Tonya's development as an ice skater, when she is virtually a child. The film smoothly transitions to her more grown-up years as Tonya morphs from an adorable little girl on ice to a frighteningly edgy teenage competitor. It is then that we meet her boyfriend, who initially seems like a socially diffident young man, but is quickly revealed to by a physically violent nightmare of boyfriend/husband. Their relationship goes through many twists and turns, but it does witness her defiant rise to greatness within her sport.
The film bristles with vivid performances, the most electric of which is Allison Janney who steals the film as Tonya's monstrously cruel mother who shows little regard for Tonya's emotional well-being even as she pushes and pushes harder for her daughter to reach the top. Sebastian Stan is great as her abusive husband/intermittent ally. Margot Robbie finally shows how transformative her acting ability is in this film. She disappears into the role of the figure skating champion whose rise to fame went against the norms of the figure skating sport, that disdained her working class background.
There are no heroes in this story; no one emerges looking even decent. But it's a deeply incisive story of how one person's amazing journey took a radically unexpected turn. It will strike a chord with anyone who had to cope with at least one difficult parent, which might make it difficult to watch, but it's a film of absolutely granite integrity. Enthusiastically recommended.