Saturday Film Club #4: I,Tonya

Director: Craig Gillespie

Country of origin and year of release: US, 2017

As the extra features on the DVD make clear, the origin for this film came from a documentary about ice skating that screenwriter Steve Rogers watched. The documentary mentioned the former US figure skater Tonya Harding and Rogers was suitably interested in her story to meet and interview her and her ex husband Jeff Gilhooly. Both Harding and Gilhooly gave completely contradictory accounts of pretty much everything, including the infamous incident that ended Harding's career in 1994. It is this pair of entirely contradictory interviews that inspired the multi person perspective 'mockumentary' style and structure of the film. Given the perceived unreliable nature of their testimony, it seemed best to lay everything down on screen and let the viewers draw their own conclusions about who was sinning, who was sinned against, and what really happened. 

Harding was banned for life from competing by the United States Figure Skating Association following an attack on her rival, Nancy Kerrigan, just ahead of them both competing in the 1994 Winter Olympics. 

I am old enough to remember the attack on Kerrigan, also how it was reported in the international media. This was a BIG STORY, coming as it did right before both women competed in the 1994 Winter Olympics. As well as the interviews with Kerrigan and Harding in the aftermath of the incident, I also remember watching footage of both women competing. Watching it all unfold on the TV news as a 15 year old, I can remember at once how surreal and weird the whole thing felt: Ice skating? Assault?!? But also how quickly scrutiny and suspicion seemed to fall on Kerrigan's team mate, Harding, whose rough diamond, working class image was both immediately apparent in interviews just as it was clearly being positioned as being directly at odds with the highly polished femininity of Kerrigan. Something was off about Harding, all of the coverage seemed to be suggesting: She had a hard manner and slightly aggressive sounding way of talking, which didn't do her any favours in this situation, and her heavy makeup contrasted sharply with the soft, princess-like image of Kerrigan and other skaters. As the international news coverage at the time, and I, Tonya itself shows, there were reasons why people wanted to see Harding fall. And it wasn't because she was heavy on the rouge.

The film itself helps to fill in some of the gaps when it comes to establishing the back story of Harding, including who she is, why she is, and why things unfolded as they did. There are a lot of strange characters in the film, but perhaps the most memorable and most defining character is Harding's mother LaVona Golden, as played by the excellent Allison Janney. Janney quite rightly won Best Supporting Actress award at the 2017 Academy Awards for a performance that is as absorbing as it is terrifying.

Throughout the film, viewers must decide for themselves what does and doesn't seem accurate, as well as who might not be telling the truth. This applies to Harding's entire biography, including her childhood, skating career, and marriage to Gilhooly, not just to what happened to Kerrigan. Was LaVona an abusive mother? Did Jeff beat Tonya? Did she fire a gun at him? It makes for gritty, unflinchingly violent at times viewing, but one thing the film doesn't do is let up in pace. 

Not everyone was happy to see a film being made about Tonya Harding, a woman who seems to divide opinion in the US as strongly now as she did back in 1994. One is reminded, weirdly, of Amy Fisher, whose own crime and punishment took place around the same time. Viewing both women, and their respective crimes and monstering by the US media, from both a different continent and a historical remove, it's hard not to feel that their stories were considerably less black and white than they were portrayed at the time. 

Margot Robbie's depiction of Harding is that of a rough diamond, but she is far from lovable. While the film, to some extent, falls into the strong woman trope, it is complicated by how unlikeable Harding is as a character at certain points. There are times when the audience has sympathy for her, including when she appears to be being penalised by successive judges in figure skating for not being middle class, feminine and submissive. At the same time, she is clearly a highly volatile character, given to violent rages and self sabotage. It is up to the audience to decide how much LaVona made Tonya who she is, and how much Tonya brought things upon herself. 

Overall, there is much to recommend I, Tonya, including the fact that it's a film that both challenges the audience and stays with you long after viewing. It is a hard watch at times, but its also an absorbing one.