90% on Rotten Tomatoes
Chloe's thoughts: Signed, sealed and recommended by Chloe
Watch it if you: Want to see a well-acted, nicely directed film surrounding a real life sporting event;
Want to see unreliable narrators portrayed in a clever way;
Want to see some amazing acting by Margot Robbie and Allison Janney;
Are interested in the Nancy Kerrigan attack of 1994
In 1994, Tonya Harding and Nancy Kerrigan were competitive skaters looking to compete in the Winter Olympics in Lillehammer, when an incident happened that shocked people the world over. After a practice session, Nancy Kerrigan was attacked in the leg, forcing her to withdraw. She quickly recovered, and ended up getting through to the 1994 Winter Olympics, taking the silver medal home. For Tonya Harding, though, life was about to be turned upside down. The attacker was identified as someone hired by Harding's ex-husband Jeff Gillooly, as well as Gillooly's friend (also Harding's bodyguard). They and the attackers were sentenced to 18 months in prison, however Gillooly also testified that Harding knew of the attack beforehand. Harding was stripped of her previous titles, fined, and, instead of being jailed, was banned from the United States Figure Skating Association, unable to competitively skate for the rest of her life.
This movie depicts Tonya Harding's life and the events surrounding the incident, based on what was said in interviews on those involved.
At first, I really was not interested in watching this movie. In fact, I got really offended when I saw that Tonya Harding went to the Golden Globes. I thought, "Really, Hollywood, you're letting this sports villain into the Golden Globes?" But after watching this film, I actually feel sorry for Tonya Harding. I don't know what's true, or what's false, and I don't think even the director or the writers know, but it does portray Harding's side of the story, and if it is true, then it's terrible what happened to her.
In all honesty, I didn't know much about this incident. I mean, I wasn't even born when this happened. But I had seen some things on TV or some documentaries where they talk about the biggest controversies of the Olympics, and so I did hear a little about it. When you watch these bits of media, it's very clear how 100% sure the media thinks Harding was a villain in this. They make her out to be some cunning and selfish athlete who will do anything to win. Because of that, I just wasn't interested in watching a movie where they try to glamorise a villain and give her money and attention by making a movie on her.
But, the film is based on interviews of everyone involved. The writers interviewed Harding, Gillooly, Gillooly's friend, Harding's mother, Harding's trainer, and even a media reporter. And a lot of what they say is very contradictory, particularly what Harding and Gillooly say, so instead of trying to figure out how to portray one perspective that will please everyone, they just decided to portray everyone's perspective. The film is the epitome of the unreliable narrator, which I thought was really interesting because even if we don't get to see the truth of the matter, we can really tell what some of these people are like just purely based on the things they said (particularly Gillooly's friend, the bodyguard).
And the film doesn't just focus on the incident with Nancy Kerrigan. I mean, everything is building up to that incident, but we start off when Harding was just a little girl just starting to ice skate. We see how she comes from a trash family, with an abusive mother, then marries the first guy that tells her she's pretty only so she can get away from her mother, and then how he turns out to be abusive too. And how he pretty much ruins her entire career through this incident with Kerrigan.
I don't think the film is really trying to tell you what to think of the story, it's kind of just presenting everything as the real life people described it, but I think it did a good job at painting a very sad picture for Tonya Harding. She basically never got a break, except for when she was the first US woman to land a triple axel, and then soon after this her life turned to shit again. It's actually a really heartbreaking story, if you think about it.
Margot Robbie does an excellent job at portraying this tragic character. She's both headstrong and stubborn, but she's also very frail and vulnerable. She's able to show so much emotion, particularly towards the end, and she's come a long way from her Wolf of Wall Street (2013) days.
Allison Janney has to be the standout of the film though. She plays the abusive mother who never showed any love to Tonya (to the point where, when she was just 6 years old or so, Tonya had to piss herself on the skating rink and continue to skate, since Tonya's mother "wasn't paying for her to pee", she was "paying for her to skate"). She does a fantastic job and I really hope she wins the Oscar for this.
Sebastian Stan is also really great as Gillooly, the at first very likeable and shy guy that makes Harding's life a little bit better, but then becomes the asshole who beats her up, shoots in her general direction, and ruins her ice skating career for life.
The whole cast actually did an excellent job, and I really wasn't expecting to like this movie as much as I did. The attack on Kerrigan seems like such a ridiculous thing to do, especially since she recovered and ended up winning the Silver anyway, so it was interesting to see this film explore sort of why and how it actually happened. The unreliable narrator trope was used well enough, and there's also quite a few fourth wall breaks in here (although I started getting sick of them as the movie progressed). In the end, this film is a really interesting look at Tonya's life, and it allows you to see her perspective of it.
And... you may even come out feeling sorry for her.
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