I, Tonya

I, Tonya follows the rise and fall of American figure skater Tonya Harding who became a world wide household name for all the wrong reasons. In January 1994, in a trial by media Harding is presumed guilty of attacking her rival, Nancy Kerrigan, striking her knee and preventing her from competing in a national competition.

At least that’s how I remember it, just another of those weird Only in America stories.

But if I, Tonya is to be believed, Tonya was innocent. And the film does do a great job of telling Tonya’s story. And it’s a fascinating story to boot. But one that may or may not be totally true.

You see, this historical drama is told in part, in a mockumentary style, with contradictory but all true, interviews with the key players.

So you get the abusive mother who claims to be a loving parent raising an ungrateful daughter, and you get an abusive boyfriend/husband, and then Tanya herself who obviously portrays her self as the only innocent party in the who affair.

It’s an interesting way to tell the story and one that works brilliantly. It’s obviously skewed towards telling Tanya’s side of things as Gospel, but having the contradicting voices, especially of her mother player fantastically by Allison Janney, who deservedly won a slew of best supporting actress awards for the role, leaves the whole affair open for speculation and not everyone will walk away in Tonya’s corner.

Rating: R16 Restricted to persons 16 years and over. NOTE: Domestic violence, sexual violence, sex scenes & offensive language

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