Margot Robbie inhabits the misunderstood Tonya Harding in this unique look on the events surrounding one of the most controversial events in US Figure Skating History.
Tonya is the first American woman to land the triple axel in competition and yes, she's a great skater but this film also focuses largely on her personal life which was troubled, to say the least.
Her mother, LaVona (Allison Janney, great) was abusive and downright nasty. But Tonya grew up poor, her mother poring every hard-earned dime into Tonya's skating. She doesn't want Tonya to make friends with the other skaters as that's her competition and curses in front of the children without care as to what the other parents must think.
And then, Tonya's first husband, Jeff (an unrecognizable Sebastian Stan) is also a real prize. He is also abusive, many scenes of which are shown on screen.
While the film does focus on the events surrounding the attack on Nancy Kerrigan (Caitlin Carver), and Jeff's dumb, idiot of a friend, Shawn (Paul Walter Hauser), it also focuses on her career and how much skating truly meant to her as it really was all she had. She dropped out of high school to focus on the sport, which never gave her the credit she deserved because of her colorful personal life and how they didn't want someone like her to represent America.
She really was never given a chance but she also made some bad choices, like marrying Jeff, big mistake. At least he admitted that he ruined her career, which he absolutely did.
The film itself is solid, with plenty of plot to go around, but Steven Rogers screenplay is flawless. The authentic feel of the late 1980s and early 1990s is also well-captured. The editing is seamless, and the costumes truly do look homemade. Janney and Robbie are brilliant as the dynamic duo. It is no surprise that the two of them aren't on speaking terms currently. Grade: A-
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