One of the reasons that I love watching movies is because there are no rules. I mean, I guess there probably are some rules, but since I don't make movies I don't know the rules. But I've watched enough movies to know that there's not just one "right" way to make a good movie. And just in case you forgot this little tidbit, or if you'd never thought about it before, I, Tonya makes that clear.The film tells the story of Tonya Harding's childhood, skating career, and chaotic interpersonal relationships. And anyone alive in 1994 will never separate Tonya Harding's name from Nancy Kerrigan's name. The attack on Kerrigan is sort of the main event, The Incident as it's referred to in the film.Breathing fresh life into a story that's almost a quarter of a century old seems like a difficult thing to do, but by telling the story from the points-of-view of the "bad guys" in the situation-Tonya Harding, her ex-husband Jeff Gillooly, and the bumbling idiot "bodyguard" Shawn Eckardt-and telling it using a non-traditional narrative, the filmmakers have done just that. The film itself is as captivating as the subject. It's told in a sort of docudrama style. All of the characters are "interviewed" in snippets throughout the film that surround the traditional dramatic portrayal. But there are also moments in the dramatic portrayal where the characters break the fourth wall, and reveal that they know they're telling a story. Harding's character in particular looks toward the camera in the middle of a scene, often at a sort of, "I told you so" moment. Not until the final credits does the film rely on actual footage of the events that occurred. Everything is reenacted, which helps maintain the illusion that we're watching real people recount real events.The performances are fantastic. Margot Robbie as Tonya Harding looks like she just walked out of a rural Wal-Mart in 1993. She has a sort of vulnerable strength that makes it easy to believe that she can be both the victim and the ruffian in her life. She made it seem as though she'd been skating her whole life, although credit for that feat might belong more to choreographers or special effects artists than to the actress. During her interviews she strikes a perfect tone of adamant denial when she's explaining why she's not to blame for anything that's happened to her.And thanks to Allison Janney's performance as her mother, we can believe that Tonya isn't to blame for anything that happened to her. Tonya's mother, LaVona, is an instant classic villain. She seems to have no redeemable qualities, and one of the only flaws of the film is that we never got to see Tonya lash out at her mother. During a pivotal scene near the end I held my breath in anticipation of Tonya hurling her down some steps, but instead she just pushed her out the door. LaVona is the type of person who brings down every room she enters, and shortens someone's life just by being around them. She's dreadful. There's a scene where young Tonya is crying to her father as he's leaving her mother, and saying, "Don't make me stay here. Let me come with you." It's heartbreaking because we know she didn't get to go with him, and she had many more years with her.Although I hadn't heard anything about him beforehand, the guy who plays the "bodyguard" Shawn Eckardt, Paul Walter Hauser, is brilliant as well. He's the sort of slimy, showoffy, putz who's not aware of how foolish he seems, and possesses an intense, consistent distortion of reality. In one scene near the end of the film the woman interviewing him challenges his assertion that he works with spy agencies in counterintelligence and terrorism operations. He responds with "But I do," as if simply stating something made it true. During the credits we see an actual interview with the real Shawn, which only serves to confirm the truthfulness of Hauser's portrayal.This isn't a sort of traditional dramatic retelling of a story. It's much funnier than I expected, and even though I remembered how the story unfolded-I was rather obsessed with the whole affair as a fifteen year old-it all seemed new and fresh as it unfolded. It's profane, and frustrating. How many times does Tonya have to go back to that guy? Why can't her mother just show her some damn affection? How come the judges won't give her a fair shake, and why won't she make it easier for them?Near the end of the film Tonya discusses truth, and concludes that it's bullshit. There is no truth she says. Such a claim calls into question the veracity of the entire film, but as I think about it, it almost doesn't matter. The fact that this is the way the "bad guys" remember the story tells us as much about them as the actual facts of the story would. So whether their story is fake news based on alternative facts or not, it doesn't matter. It's how they remember it. More than anything else, films exist to tell stories. And this is a great one.4 starsWasn't that well-written and fun to read? You should subscribe to my blog and we'll send you an e-mail every time I write a new one. Type your email address in the box and click the "create subscription" button. My list is completely spam free, and you can opt out at any time.
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