Craig Gillespie’s I, Tonya opens with a title card promising it is based on “contradictory” and “totally true” interviews, and that joke is the whole engine. The film follows Tonya Harding’s life and career, and her connection to the 1994 assault on her rival Nancy Kerrigan.
Trailer, via eOne UK.
A Four-Year-Old on the Ice
Steven Rogers’ script builds Harding’s life as a series of people who hurt her and a talent that kept outrunning them. Her mother, LaVona Golden, is physically abusive. Her father leaves. At 15 she starts dating 18-year-old Jeff Gillooly, marries him, and he turns abusive too.
Loosely based on actual events, the film depicts Harding as a victim, reframing the narrative around her implication in the aftermath of the crime.
Two Triple Axels and a Fourth-Place Finish
Harding becomes the first American female figure skater to complete two triple Axel jumps in competition. At the 1992 Winter Olympics she fails to stick her landings and finishes fourth. She takes a waitress job. Coach Diane Rawlinson talks her back for 1994. She performs well, confronts a judge about her scores, and is told her image is not wholesome enough.
The Death Threat in Portland
On the day of her November 1993 competition at the Northwest Pacific Regional Championships in Portland, Harding receives a death threat and chooses not to compete. Realizing he can sabotage her competition, Jeff instructs his friend Shawn Eckardt to send death threats to Kerrigan. Harding makes a phone call trying to find Kerrigan’s training arena and practice times.
Margot Robbie and Allison Janney
| Element | Detail |
|---|---|
| Director / Writer | Craig Gillespie / Steven Rogers |
| Runtime | 120 minutes |
| Budget / Gross | $6 million / $67 million worldwide |
| Oscar nominations | Three: Janney (won), Robbie, Best Film Editing |
| Golden Globe nominations | Three |
Margot Robbie, who also produced, plays Harding. Sebastian Stan plays Gillooly. Allison Janney won Best Supporting Actress at the 90th Academy Awards as LaVona, and the film earned a Best Actress nomination for Robbie and a Best Film Editing nomination.
The Fourth Wall Pays Off
The darkly comedic interviews, set in the modern day, let the film break the fourth wall and treat its narrators as unreliable. That structure is the smartest thing here. It lets I, Tonya hold two ideas at once: that Harding was shaped by violence, and that she is not a reliable witness to her own life.
Janney’s LaVona is the performance that will last, a monster played without a single plea for sympathy. Robbie carries the skating and the rage. The film’s weakest habit is tidiness — it wants a clean victim where the record is messier.
I, Tonya premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival on September 8, 2017, and opened in the United States on December 8. It runs 120 minutes.
Metacritic 77/100 (7.7 of 10)
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