I, Tonya Dir: Craig Gillespie

0

Best actress nominee, Margot Robbie brings one of the most reviled figures in sport history to life in this wildly original biopic, based on real-life conflicting interviews with figure skater Tonya Harding and her violently repulsive ex-husband Jeff Gillooly (Sebastian Stan.)

The figure skating world is populated by elegant, long-limbed ice princesses clad in rhinestones and lace, gliding through a frozen fairyland to a Tchaikovsky soundtrack. Then along came Tonya Harding, a foul-mouthed, trash-talking, brassy blond in gaudy glitter and blue nail polish – an athletic powerhouse who delivered the impossible triple axel to heavy metal. The judges weren’t interested. She gave them hell. Her determined coach, Dianne Rawlinson (Julianne Nicholson,) reworked Tonya just enough for her to win the National Championship and get her to the 1992 Winter Olympics.

She failed to win a medal and returned to obscurity as a waitress in her Oregon hometown, having traded her abusive mother Lavona Golden (Allison Janney) for an even more abusive husband, Jeff Gillooly. Lavona’s only comment on the wedding, “You fuck stupid, you don’t marry stupid!” as she turns her back on her daughter yet again.

When the Olympic Committee decided to hold the next winter Olympics in 1994, Tonya had one more shot at stardom – the only real competition standing in her way was regal Nancy Kerrigan (Caitlin Carver.) And, as we all know, Jeff Gillooly and his pal Shawn (Paul Walter Hauser) decided to take matters into their own hands to make sure Tonya had no competition.

Kerrigan was knee-capped and what followed was a public vilification of Harding unlike anything ever seen as the media obsessed over the story. She was stalked, pilloried, the painful details of her life exposed, convicted of hindering a prosecution and then, finally, banned from US figure skating for life.

There are so many versions of this story – Tonya, Jeff, Lavona, Shawn, the media, the courts, the public – there is no one truth to be found here. And rather than coming up with his own version of the truth, writer Steven Rogers based his script on interviews with both Harding and Gillooly and endless hours of videotape produced at the time.

The result is two hours of non-stop emotional roller coaster, from anguish as her chain-smoking, sadistic mother knocks the crying 8-year old Tonya off her chair – again; horror as Jeff Gillooly smashes her in the face, and into the walls; hope as she calls out the judges for scoring her badly because of her cheap costumes; triumph mixed with desperation to be loved for once as she lands the triple axel for the first time.

Intertwining these major events, we meet the ‘present’ Tonya, Lavona and Jeff as Robbie, Janney and Stan recreate Steven Rogers’ interviews, sometimes playing it straight, sometimes breaking the fourth wall to explain what ‘really happened’ to us. Most of the humour, and there is plenty, is found in these interludes – their denials, corrections and self-reflection as they try to justify or duck responsibility for their actions.

We move from tears to laughter to tears over and over. It’s hard not to feel pity for Tonya, she was clearly at the mercy of everyone around her, with no moral compass, unsophisticated, uneducated and full of rage at the violence wreaked on her by the people she loves, while the rest of the world pretends not to notice. All she can do skate – and in the end the world she hoped would love her, strips that away, too. But then again, I couldn’t help wishing she’d been less stubborn and made a few better decisions, taken a little more responsibility. If only… which is probably how director Craig Gillespie wants us to feel as we leave the theatre. No one will ever know what ‘really happened’ and he’s just telling us a few different versions.

And… speaking of leaving the theatre – stay for the credits! You’ll be shocked at how perfectly this movie was cast as we see footage of the original cast of characters in action.

Margot Robbie delivers an exceptional performance, seamlessly taking Tonya from 15-47, immersing herself in her character and treating her with respect, when it would have been so easy to create a parody. She nailed that pleading grin Tonya famously wore after completing the triple axel, so painful to see even then. The only issue I had with her in the role is that Robbie is 13cm taller than Tonya, who is barely 1.55m tall. The real Tonya was so tiny that, despite her athletic prowess, she was physically quite defenceless against her mother and Gillooly.

Allison Janney also delivered an Oscar-worthy performance as Tonya’s mother Lavona. This woman leaves Joan Crawford/Mommy Dearest in the dust. Her motives are never clear. While she spends every cent she earns on her daughter’s training, she also humiliates, undermines and physically abuses her – and I’m not sure if she thought she was providing misguided inspiration, or was it just payback?

I, Tonya opens on Thursday, 25 January. Don’t miss it!

Veronica McLaughlin

Veronica McLaughlin
Latest posts by Veronica McLaughlin (see all)