Entrancing on ice
I, TONYA
This sharp and alarmingly funny real-life ice skating drama scores highly for artistic interpretation and technical accomplishment. Aussie actress Margot Robbie has been deservedly Oscar nominated for her unruly, sympathetic and physically demanding role as disgraced American figure skater Tonya Harding.
The then 23-year-old Olympian became infamous in 1994 when her rival Nancy Kerrigan was attacked with a steel baton.
Blisteringly bracing and based on interviews with the key players of Team Harding, this is a very knowing tale of denial, delusion, snobbery and celebrity.
Kerrigan isn’t voiced but we hear
Harding’s story via Robbie’s brash turn as the first woman to perform the difficult triple axel in competition. A redneck prodigy, she grows up an athletic and brazen success. With her bad hair colour, tiny outfits and being forced to try to act posh to succeed, she’s basically all five Spice Girls rolled into one. But with Olympic talent.
Fellow Oscar nominee Allison Janney won the best supporting actress BAFTA as her chain-smoking, foul-mouthed parent.
She’s the most terrifying mother in cinema since Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho. Sebastian Stan, best known as Marvel’s Winter Soldier, plays Harding’s husband Jeff as a violent and emotionally abusive idiot. Both deny culpability in the unforgivable assault on Kerrigan which is referred to as ‘the incident’. We see it executed with extraordinary ineptitude by a third party.
The film’s raucous tone makes the graphic domestic violence bearable and highlights the mostly male stupidity on show. Robbie uses her power as producer to craft a film which lifts the lid on sporting concerns such as partiality of competition judges, abuse of aspiring stars, and the crossover between the media, corporate sponsorship and success.
With the world’s eye on the Winter Olympics, Tonya’s cautionary tale is as well timed as her dazzling routines.
Cert 15 Running time 119 minutes ★★★★