I,Tonya – Ridicule or Heartbreak?

I, Tonya (2017), directed by Craig Gillipse and starring Margot Robbie is a film full of revelations, comedic and volatile about the life of U.S. Olympic skater Tonya Harding. While the movie oscillates from musical to dark comedy, there is something certain: I can’t trust this story of Harding’s life. The audience is given a warped interpretation of an account of the childhood, relationships, and lives in Tonya Harding’s life including Nancy Kerrigan’s infamous 1994 leg attack. At the beginning, the filmmakers include this note, “Based on irony free, wildly contradictory, totally true interviews with Tonya Harding and Jeff Gillooly.”

As I was cracking up inside at the absurdity of the way the characters dressed, presented, and performed the outlandish mannerisms, mimicking their real-life counterparts, and scenes paired with distinct soundtrack, I felt culpable for laughing at a woman being tossed around, hit, and carelessly chucked at. Despite knowing that I was watching a fictionalized, hyperbolic representation of Tonya Harding, the affect of the actors’ performances left me ridden if my empathy to Tonya was misgiving. At what point is domestic, physical, mental, or emotional abuse funny?

The drama, abuse, and volatility, countering one another, one side presented as fact, then revealed a lie – such as a scene where Tonya shoots her husband, then facing the camera to say that this never happened – is the banality of affect, that the filmmakers tell her story as a dark comedy – comedy, drama, tragedy. Despite all the punching, hitting around by all the characters in the film, I didn’t feel sorry for Tonya. The portrayal of the character always showed her taking it, maybe that came from her passion for ice skating. The credit goes to how Margot Robbie’s acting of Ms. Harding with a tough exterior, determined attitude in spite of all the tribulations throughout Harding’s life is what carries this film. All the odds against her, an abusive mother LaVona and abusive husband Jeff, and constantly being lambasted that she was not good enough due to her “white trash” reputation, home-made costumes, and unrefined choice of performance music to still continue and be one of the best of her time.

The film posed an interesting question about the balance of romantic relationships: the flower-gardener dynamic. When Tonya and Jeff start dating, Tonya’s mother asks Jeff who he is: Are you the flower? Are you the gardener? “Every relationship has a flower or gardener.” Aside from the film, this idea is an insightful framework in navigating relationships. This seed of the dynamic possibly is planted by LaVona, the second she asks Jeff which one he is: the flower or the gardener?

The amount of nurturing that Jeff wants to give Tonya and that he thinks she needs is not something he can handle. and takes it out on abusing her. The way the actor Sebastian Stan sharply performs the complicated character of Jeff as destructive, yet vulnerable and lost. I think that Jeff starts to despise being the “gardener,” but in his relationship with Tonya, that is the role he is meant to be, and therefore, turns to malicious means to make sure his ‘flower’ is taken care to bloom, even if it means sabotaging Tonya’s friend.

It is clearly shown in the film: Tonya was the flower and Jeff, the gardener, buying the house, doing the grocery shopping, the care work to water the flower with love, support, and sustenance, which includes his abuse. In a sadistic way, its his way of tending to his flower, but is a volatile way to submit her into his submission. On the contrary, Tonya doesn’t take his abuse completely. She fights back. I think that’s why the film’s comedic undertones make this a compelling story because this film portrayal isn’t victimizing Tonya’s situation either. The contradicting pieces of interviews shows that maybe, there wasn’t a balance of flower and gardener in their relationship.

The one thing, one prize that only means anything to Tonya, more than the kicks and abuse is skating. One of the most poignant moment in the film is when she is getting ready before her last professional skating competition. Tonya’s eyes watering up as she is powdering her face, what I would think the performer looks likes before ascending into their clown persona.

Still of the character Tonya

For Tonya, this isn’t a persona, it is her last performance. The one where she publicly and ultimately broke down, even asking for help from the judges, crying for their compassion because she didn’t have anymore for herself to give, and one one else in her life was giving it to her anymore. Even when that is taken away, when its stripped away, she continues to compete, in a different sport but she still does. In the film’s end, through everything she went through personally and professionally, she is a fighter. We see her boxing, one of many sports she takes up after being banned from ice skating for life. She keeps going; as she has been punched to the ground, speaking to the camera, to us, once more saying, “…there’s no such thing as truth. It’s bullshit. Everyone has their own truth. And life just does whatever the fuck it wants.” Gets up and before getting back into the ring, “That’s the story of my life… . And that’s the fucking truth!”

#MargotRobbie #USFigureSkating #SebastianStan #Sportsbiopic #DarkComedy #ITonya