starring Margot Robbie, Sebastian Stan, Allison Janney
directed by Craig Gillespie
119 minutes
Tonya Harding (Margot Robbie) grew up poor in Portland, Oregon. LaVona (Allison Janney), Tonya's mother worked as a waitress. Tonya started dating and ultimately married Jeff Gillooly (Sebastian Stan) the first man she fell in love with. Tonya and Jeff had a rocky relationship. He was physically and verbally abusive. They split apart and came back together more than once.
Tonya went through a couple coaches. She didn't have much money. Her clothes weren't up to the level of the stage on which she performed. She wasn't the image that the US figure skating association wanted even though she was technically one of the top women in the sport in the early 1990s.
Everything comes apart for Tonya in 1994 after Jeff and Shawn Eckhardt, her bodyguard, plan to threaten Nancy Kerrigan, her top US competition. Their plan goes sideways after Eckhardt hires someone to break Kerrigan's knee. Tonya makes the US Olympic team that year but does not win a medal.
Thoughts
This movie was based on actual events. I recalled some but not all of the details from the events that were in the news in 1994 surrounding the women's figure skating at the Olympics.
Margot Robbie was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress but did not win. Allison Janney was nominated for and won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress. The movie was also nominated for the Academy Award for Best Film Editing but did not win.
The story focuses mainly on Tonya and her relationship with Jeff. Her mother, her coach, and her bodyguard also play important parts in the movie. Nancy Kerrigan is a character in the movie but there isn't very much focus on her other than necessary to explain what happened.
The screenwriter based the screenplay on interviews that he conducted with Tonya, Jeff, and LaVona. The actors who played them re-enacted interview scenes that are inserted into the movie here and there.
The movie definitely feels like it is sympathetic towards Tonya which is understandable considering that the basis for the screenplay was interviews with her, her mother, and Jeff Gillooly. I found the movie to be moving at times. I thought that music was used quite effectively throughout the movie.
I thought this was an excellent film. The story is a bit of a trainwreck. I couldn't stop watching once I started. It felt a bit on the long side but there were lots of wrinkles in the story that needed to be explored. I don't think it will work for everyone but I was very impressed with it.
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