I, Tonya charts the rise and fall of Olympian skater Tonya Harding (Margot Robbie), showing Harding’s determination and skill but highlighting the sad reality that complicated people like her are so often ‘doomed-to-fail’ before even starting.
The film is presented as a mockumentary, with Harding reflecting on her life in the present and charting her childhood to her imprisonment.
The impact of childhood trauma, abandonment and a love-hate relationship between mother and daughter, involving the nuance and line between negligence and abuse, are the film’s main themese. Harding’s mother (Allison Janney) looms large over the film, even when not on screen.
Ideas of not traditional families affecting opportunity and class are one of the main chords of the film, showing the grim reality of the glass ceiling individuals face when engaging in an ‘elitist’ sport like figure skating. Tacking onto the idea of classism, flaws with meritocracies and the barriers that those of less privileged backgrounds face.
Leading from an abusive family relationship to another manipulative and dysfunctional relationship with Tonya’s first date/boyfriend/husband (Sebastian Stan), Tonya’s only shelter is on the ice, and her extraordinary skating skills garner her great achievements one after another.
However, her personal and professional lives eventually clash and lead to the downfall and the ultimate life sentence of her career: a permanent ban on skating.
I, Tonya is an imperfect film, but the flaws are why I love it. It does not show a perfect victim of domestic abuse, because the reality is always so much more complex. Tonya fights back, and her untraditional love for both her husband and mum make her someone hard to track emotionally.
There is no direct response to the Nancy Kerrigan incident, but that isn’t the purpose of the film, and is something viewers can decide with their own reading.
Robbie’s performance is top-notch. It has opened a new chapter for her career in more challenging and controversial roles.
Though Harding was in some ways ‘doomed-to-fail’, I, Tonya is nothing short of a success. It’s a pioneering film for how it manages to portray an untraditional and unapologetically unpleasant victim.
