I, Tonya- Review

Dramatic, compelling and at times, quite ironic- I, Tonya delivers the hard facts following a life of domestic violence, childhood dreams that are both crushed and achieved and the ever-growing pressure to please those above us.

Directed by Craig Gillespie, it features some astounding performances completely nailed by Margot Robbie, Allison Janney and Sebastian Stan.

Rather than cutting straight to the facts that became a career-defining moment for one professional skater in such a negative light, it begins the story of the early beginnings of a dream that would soon take flight. If you're familiar with the story of Tonya Harding, you'll understand that before 'the incident', she was a well-respected ice-skater being the only American woman to attempt and successfully complete two triple axel jumps, later earning her a first place position in the 1991 Skate America competition and promising Olympian.

After 'the incident', Tonya's career took a twisted turn and later saw her appearing in the public eye for a whole different matter. The direct quote, "I was loved...for a minute" is one that will permanently define Tonya as media speculation quite literally took over her world.

I was so thoroughly impressed with Margot's portrayal of Tonya. From her "white trash" attitude, right down to the four to five months it took for her to train to conceive a competent skater on the ice. What I liked most about the way she captured Tonya, was that we could either love her or hate her (as a character). There were moments in this film where the audience could believe she was a complete monster, a career-harming, jealous monster. But at other times, she sought pity from the audience. There was always an explanation within a prior scene or an after scene that related back to the interview interruption.

Allison Janney has always achieved the greatest success when cast as mother-like figures (or principals) so when I found out that she experienced great difficulty with this role, addressing that it was one of the hardest to achieve in her entire career, I was shocked but so thrilled for her to have nailed her performance the way she did. In this film, LaVona Harding, Tonya's mother, is portrayed as a heartless, abusive and hard-edged mother from the wrong side of the tracks. Her behaviour affects not only the way she is perceived by the general public and Tonya's personal trainer, but also by the judges who address that this is where the "white-trash" image appears to be stemming from. Every time she appeared, I would smile as she always had the trashiest (good thing) things to say. Easily my favourite role in this film.

Despite this being a brilliant film, there has been a lot of speculation as to what is fact and what is fiction. A common and anticipated discrepancy was between Tonya Harding and Jeff Gillooly. Their stories didn't match in the way they remembered personal events happening. Whether that was an account made up by Tonya of their marital problems or whether Jeff Gillooly didn't actually hurt her at all is something we probably won't ever have a definite answer for. Tonya's mother has denied ever abusing Tonya and has only ever admitted to hitting her once at the ice rinks.

One last thing that won't reach a conclusion on a personal level or not, is whether Tonya actually knew about the planning of 'the incident' beforehand.

I, Tonya has been so carefully constructed. The amount of effort put in place to make sure the stories were set straight before release, the extensive training Margot Robbie was put through to ensure she was competent enough to portray Tonya both on the rink and off and even the beauty of having each character being able to be sat down down in parts throughout the movie in interview-like scenes was really the cherry on top.

Inside the rink and off, I, Tonya goes to new levels to address the events between 1991 and 1994 (and thereafter) to produce a new perspective on one of America's previous most respected female ice skater in such a badass and enthralling film.

Score: 8.5/10