I, Tonya (DVD) Review

Featuring Margot Robbie, Sebastian Stan, and Julianne Nicholson, I, Tonya tells the story of figure skater Tonya Harding from her childhood to her role in the 1994 assault on Nancy Kerrigan. It also explores the impact of her past on her present and future.

Harding’s life is a strange odyssey of love and pain. It’s told through interviews with people who shaped her. This includes her ex-husband Jeff Gillooly, mother LaVona Golden, and coach Diane Rawlinson.

The Story

Using actual interviews, i tonya offers a fascinating look at the life of Tonya Harding. The film covers her childhood through her career in figure skating, and the way she ended up at the heart of a major scandal that turned America’s winter Olympics into a media circus.

The story begins in the 1980s with a ferocious relationship between Tonya and her mother LaVona, who is both verbally and physically abusive toward her daughter. As Tonya grows older, she takes her skating obsession further, enlisting the help of her coach Diane (Julianne Nicholson). However, when Tonya meets Jeff Gillooly (Sebastian Stan) she is quickly sucked into his toxic world.

Sebastian Stan plays Gillooly as an utterly insidious abuser, a well-meaning supporter and a dimwitted criminal “mastermind” all at once. It’s an awkward mix, and Sebastian Stan has to work a lot harder than Robbie does to make this seem convincing.

As Tonya, Margot Robbie is a terrific actress who captures the character’s grit and vulnerability. She evokes how Tonya felt trapped in her own skin, longing to be storybook pretty but held back by the ugliness around her. She’s especially impressive when she stares grimly into her mirror, smearing rouge on her cheeks, and longing to be loved by the world.

Allison Janney is equally good, portraying LaVona as an irrational but committed parent. The movie also uses flashbacks to show how LaVona was always able to push Tonya further, even though she was physically and emotionally abusing her.

It’s the story of a woman who made it big and then fell apart, a victim of her own inability to escape. The movie shows this through interviews with Harding herself, her mother and her first coach, as well as Jeff, Shawn and a journalist who covered the scandal.

Despite its many niggling problems, I, Tonya is a very effective and affecting film about the way women are viewed in our society. It offers a different point of view on the incident than most people think, and it challenges what you believe about Harding and her role in it.

The Cast

Margot Robbie and Allison Janney star as a pair of figure skaters who struggle against class divisions to rise to the top. They become a formidable duo, but their success threatens to come crashing down when Jeff Gillooly conspires to hurt rival Nancy Kerrigan on the eve of the 1994 Olympics.

I, Tonya is based on the life of the real-life figure skater Tonya Harding (Margot Robbie). She made history by becoming the first American woman to complete two triple axels in competition. She also landed an Olympic bronze medal.

The movie is a dark comedy that depicts domestic abuse, drug use and smoking by world-class athletes, pervasive strong language and sexuality. It also has a pretty bleak outlook on the world, in which a person can have her entire life ruined by idiots and sociopaths.

Parents need to know that I, Tonya is based on the true story of a controversial 1990s figure skater named Tonya Harding, who was involved in an attack on her rival, Nancy Kerrigan, in the days before the 1994 Winter Olympics. She was eventually convicted of conspiring to injure her rival and was sentenced to two years in prison.

While the film isn't perfect, it does a solid job of portraying the Harding-Kerrigan incident. It also has a number of really excellent performances, including from Allison Janney as the Harding family's mother, LaVona Golden.

Janney is great at conveying the kind of cruelty that Harding's mother had to endure. She tells THR that she never got to meet her character in person, but she used "Tonya's version of who she was" to make the role as realistic as possible.

Sebastian Stan is another strong actor in the movie, playing Gillooly. He's best known for his roles in Marvel movies and TV shows such as The Mad Hatter and Once Upon a Time.

The film is a little overlong and does a poor job of transitioning between different scenes, but it's worth a watch for its interesting take on the Tonya Harding story. It's also a great way to learn more about one of the most famous scandals in sports history.

The Director

When director Craig Gillespie was tasked with creating a feature film centered on Tonya Harding’s life, it presented him with the challenge of crafting a complex and compelling story that would also offer a serious take on the way in which media has manipulated its subjects. The result is I, Tonya, an acclaimed and scathingly honest portrayal of Harding as both a victim and a villain.

I, Tonya combines scripted interviews, dramatic re-enactments and archival footage to tell the story of Harding’s life from her early years as an impoverished Oregonian trying to make it in figure skating to her eventual disgrace at the hands of her mother (Allison Janney) and abusive husband Jeff Gillooly (Sebastian Stan). The film’s dazzlingly detailed and nuanced storytelling is aided by a stellar cast.

Margot Robbie plays the title character and does a stellar job as she is able to convey a very convincing range of emotions and behaviors. She’s particularly great at capturing the intense fear and anger of the young Tonya, who is forced to live with a repressive and violent mother.

Another scene that stands out is the one where Tonya meets her new husband for the first time, played by Sebastian Stan. There’s a lot of chemistry between the two actors and Stan is able to bring some sympathy to the character, as he is clearly very angry at the situation that has befallen him.

While the film does a good job of depicting Tonya as a victim of a very vicious and devious mother and husband, it is also able to show the audience that she was a strong and resilient woman who never gave up. Her determination to succeed at a sport she loved was an admirable quality and it was this spirit that led her to become the world’s best figure skater.

Despite the fact that her personal life deteriorated greatly over the course of the film, Harding remained a positive and uplifting figure in her community and her fans were more than willing to stick by her side. She had the best of intentions, which makes her character more complex and human than one might imagine.

The Rating

I, Tonya has a rating of R for "pervasive language, violence, and some sexual content/nudity." The film includes scenes of abuse that have intense emotional impact. It also features a liberal use of the F-word and sex scenes that may be upsetting for young teens.

I tonya is based on the true story of controversial figure skater Tonya Harding. The film follows her rise to fame and the infamous attack on rival skater Nancy Kerrigan in January 1994.

This dark comedy is based on the real-life events that led to Harding's downfall. It shows a completely different side of the skater than you'll hear in news reports and gives you multiple points of view. It's a darkly funny film, and the acting is excellent.

As a teenager, Tonya (Margot Robbie) finds her way to the skating rink after her abusive mother LaVona (Allison Janney) leaves her. She and Jeff Gillooly (Sebastian Stan) start a friendship, but they soon begin to fight. When Gillooly decides to send Tonya a letter warning her to leave the sport, everything goes wrong.

Instead, the pair find themselves involved in a criminal scheme that leads to the hit on Kerrigan. It's a cleverly executed hit job, but it's not the only violence in I, Tonya -- there's also plenty of abuse depicted by LaVona and Gillooly.

The abrasive and catty behavior of both characters is well-detected and has intense impact. There's also pervasive strong language (including a lot of swearing), some sexuality, and strip club nudity.

Despite its R rating, I, Tonya is an enjoyable and amusing movie. It has some mature content and plenty of laughs, with great direction by Craig Gillespie and some wonderful performances by the cast.

I, Tonya is rated R for "pervasive language, violence, an abundance of profanity, and some sexual content/nudity." It contains scenes of abuse that have intense emotional impact. The movie also includes a liberal use of the F-word, sex scenes that may be upsetting to young teens, and gunshot wounds.

It's an interesting and engrossing look at one of the most infamous scandals in sports history. Its hysterical humor and its fine cast will please fans of dark comedy, while also offering some real insight into the shady world of figure skating.