Movie Review—I, Tonya

I, Tonya
Theatrical release poster

by Peter J. O’Connell

I, Tonya. Released: Dec. 2017. Runtime: 120 mins. MPAA Rating: R for pervasive language, violence, and some sexual content/nudity.

Mothers were memorable figures in a number of movies over the past year. For example, there was the title character played by Jennifer Lawrence in Darren Aronofsky’s odd allegory, Mother! And there was the agnostic mother (Julianne Nicholson) and the Reverend Mother (Melissa Leo, who contended for the heart and mind of a young nun in Novitiate. And there was the mom (Laurie Metcalf)—both hassled and hassling--in Lady Bird. Perhaps most memorable of all was LaVona Fay Golden (Allison Janney), merciless mater of figure skater Tonya Harding (Margot Robbie), in the tragicomic biopic I, Tonya, directed by Craig Gillespie and written by Steven Rogers.

I, Tonya’s chronicle of the relationship between Tonya and her mother—and other key figures in the skater’s life—is done in a kind of “mockumentary” way, based, as an on-screen text says, on “mostly true, wildly contradictory” actual interviews. Though some actual footage is included in the film, most of the interviews are “faux” ones. There are also direct addresses by characters that “break the fourth wall” of the unfolding drama. The Tonya character sums up one of the story’s themes as: “There’s no such thing as truth. It’s bull. Everyone has their own truth, and life does whatever it wants. “

But for much of her life, Tonya has to do what her mother wants. Noting Tonya’s natural ability at skating, LaVona arranges for her daughter (played as a child by Maizie Smith and McKenna Grace) to begin expensive skating lessons at the age of four years. This was a sacrifice for LaVona, a waitress, to make. Her family, a Pacific Northwest equivalent of “rednecks,” was financially constrained.

This initial sacrifice, however, proves quite problematic, and most of the time LaVona—a cigarillo-chomping, fiercely foul-mouthed harridan, often with a bird, and always with a “chip,” on her shoulder—verbally and emotionally abuses Tonya. Sometimes the abuse is physical. Joan Crawford, played by Faye Dunaway in Mommy Dearest (1981), notoriously beat her daughter with metal coat hangers, but LaVona throws knives at hers.

Strangely, although she arranged for skating lessons, LaVona undercuts Tonya’s self-esteem when she competes, and she doesn’t help her child with costuming, musical choices, etc. In one of the pungent passages with which the script is replete, the mother/daughter dynamic is summed up thusly: LaVona—“I made you a champion, knowing you’d hate me for it. That’s the sacrifice a mother makes! I wish I’d had a mother like me instead of nice. Nice gets you s---! I didn’t like my mother either, so what? I f------ gave you a gift!” Tonya—“You cursed me.”

Tonya does get love and respect from her father (Jason Davis), but he eventually divorces LaVona and leaves the family. Predictably, Tonya as an adolescent turns to a boyfriend, Jeff Gillooly (Sebastian Stan), as a daddy substitute. Predictably, Jeff starts abusing her, even after they marry, much as her mother had.

The skating establishment of the 1980s and early 1990s, in its way, also abuses Tonya. They prefer balletic princess-types rather than an athletic type such as the sassy Tonya (who can be as foul-mouthed as her mother). But Tonya perseveres, and when she becomes only the second woman ever to perform the incredibly difficult triple-axel jump in international competition, respect finally comes her way. At that moment, as the best figure skater in the world, she is a glowing champion!

But as recognition comes Tonya Harding’s way, so does scandal, one of the most notorious scandals in sports history. As the 1994 Winter Olympics approach, Tonya has Nancy Kerrigan as her main competition. Much loose talk and little intelligent thought characterize Tonya’s circle of Jeff, Shawn Eckhardt (Paul Walker Hauser), and some other dimbulbs. Under circumstances whose nature is contested in “wildly contradictory” stories by those involved, Kerrigan is brutally struck on the knee in an attempt to disable her from competition. But she recovers and beats Tonya at the Games. Jeff, Shawn, and Tonya are convicted of various crimes, and Tonya is banned from competitive figure skating for life.

Tonya reflects on her life and the larger scene, the American scene, of which her life is a part: “America. They want someone to love; they want someone to hate.” And: “I was loved for a minute; then I was hated. Then I was just a punch line.” And, addressing the movie audience: “It was like being abused all over again. Only this time it was by you. All of you. You’re all my attackers too.”

There are characters in I, Tonya who are dimbulbs, but the movie’s makers and cast perform brilliantly. Gillespie and Rogers have given the film an imaginative and innovative structure, with dialogue frequently as sharp as a skate blade. Margot Robbie leaves her blonde bimbo persona from previous films behind to create a multidimensional Tonya—abuse victim, glowing champion, tough broad. Her performance is the acting equivalent of a triple axel, which is matched by Allison Janney as a “mommy damnedest.”

“Footnotes” to the film: (1) Through her youth and adolescence, Allison Janney trained seriously to become a figure skater. At age 17, however, she accidentally walked into a glass door and gravely injured her right leg. She had to spend weeks in the hospital and missed her first year of college. After that she didn’t skate for a very long time. (2) In 1993 I, Tonya’s director, Craig Gillespie, directed a Campbell’s Soup commercial starring Nancy Kerrigan.